Shattered
by B.H.Knightfall
Summary: After meeting Nightshade, another teenage vigilante, the team gets pulled into her hectic way of life. She proves to be quite useful for the team, but her inability to adapt, makes them unable to trust her. Questions start to surface about her past, and Nightshade is forced to face her demons. The story starts a month after first season. I don't own the cover Image.
1. Welcome to New York

Gotham City- February 18/2011- 8:00 P.M

The quiet night in Gotham had been interrupted when the team was assigned a mission to stop Firefly before he could cause panic in the city; they followed him while avoiding his blasts and ignoring his cheesy one-liners. Zatanna, Miss Martian and Rocket chased Firefly through the air while Kid Flash, who was carrying Artemis, tried to put her in a good position so she could shoot an arrow at him; a task that had proved to be harder than he thought. Aqualad, who was jumping roofs along with Superboy, looked around searching for Robin, it had been a while since he last saw him. Though he should be used to it by now, seeing how the Boy Wonder loved to disappear on missions.

" _ **Is this guy serious?"**_ asked Kid Flash. The team didn't answer; they were too busy trying to take him down to pay attention to his pointless question. Miss Martian extended her hand and used her powers to make him crash into one of the buildings, but as soon as he felt he was being pulled, Firefly aimed his flamethrower at her taking her down.

" _ **M'gann!"**_ said Superboy who, without doubting it any longer, stayed behind to catch her before she could hit the pavement, and after putting her safely on the ground he jumped up to the sky landing on Firefly's back. Grunting, he tried to rip off his wings but they wouldn't come off.

"What are you doing?" asked Firefly trying to shake him off, "go away idiot!" he shouted hitting him against a brick wall. Superboy screamed in pain as his back was being scrapped by the wall, and that was when they heard a familiar laugh. The next thing they saw was Robin kicking Firefly in the face forcing Superboy to the ground with Robin taking his place.

"Let's see if you can really handle the heat," he said placing a bomb on his back before jumping off only to be caught by Rocket. When the bomb exploded, Firefly lost one of his wings making it hard for him to stay in the air, and forcing him to fly closer to the ground.

" _ **Artemis shoot him now,"**_ said Aqualad waiting for Firefly to crash. The girl prepared an arrow as Kid Flash got closer to him, but just before she was about to shoot, he plunged to the ground. Kid Flash stopped right next to him, and lowered Artemis onto the street. The couple approached him first as the others caught up.

"Dude, that was awesome, I couldn't even see the arrow," said Robin placing a hand on Artemis' shoulder.

"That's because I never shot it. Whatever took him down didn't come from my bow," she told him.

"Then what Happened?" asked Aqualad kicking the flamethrower away from Firefly's hands.

"Maybe he just couldn't stay in the air for too long," Kid Flash tried to explain before leaning down to examine the suit. Zatanna looked at it from the other side, she moved the remaining wing out of the way and saw a small knife stuck between it and the rest of the suit. The knife had cut most of the cables connecting the wing to the suit, making it useless.

"Guys, check this out," she said pulling the knife out. It was incredibly sharp and the curved blade looked strong; strong enough to cut through steel. Even though the blade was supposed to be its usual metallic color, this one was black, even the handle was black, which probably explained why they couldn't see it in the dark. Robin leaned down to look at it, the way the blade was bent allowed it to make a clean cut of the wing, so the person that threw it had to know about the mechanics of the suit, not to mention they also needed to have crazy good aim. While Robin was analyzing the knife, Kid Flash leaned down next to him and snatched it away from him.

"This is a really cool souvenir," he said walking away with it. The Boy Wonder shook his head, and as he got up he caught a glimpse of a metallic USB laying under Firefly. He moved him out of the way, picked it up and put it in his belt after examining carefully. Suddenly, he got the feeling that he was being watched, but when he looked around, there was no one in sight. Shrugging it off, he noticed that the others had cuffed Firefly to a streetlight and had started walking away from him, so he picked up the pace and managed to catch up with them.

"Shit," said a girl, her figure shadowed by the lack of light in the alley she was hiding in, and her face mainly covered by a black hood. The place where she was standing, was located diagonal to where the team was, giving her the perfect view to the whole scene. As she watched the team leave, she drew her hand to her ear. _**"Guys, we have a problem,"**_ she said before turning her back on Firefly's unconscious body, and disappearing deeper into the shadows.

Mount Justice- 10:46 P.M-

Kid Flash placed the knife on his souvenir shelf, but not before taking a good look at it, he had never seen one like it, and he really wanted to touch it. Pulling his hand out he touched the knife lightly on its edge and managed to get a cut, that just showed how sharp the knife really was. Kid Flash let go of it just as Artemis walked into the room, she leaned against the door frame, a smile on her lips and her arms crossed over her chest. She never really got tired of watching him do stupid things.

"That's what you get for messing with it," she said as he walked closer to her, "need a Band-Aid?" she asked watching the blood come out of his tiny wound. Kid Flash shook his head.

"Babe please, this is nothing…. actually, it really hurts. Why is it that the small cuts always hurt like hell?" he asked before leaning in for a kiss. After a few seconds, the couple walked out of the room and into the living room where the others were waiting. Robin had the USB in his hand and was plugging it into his holographic computer, but when he did, the screen went blank. He tried to hack it, but new firewalls kept appearing, and with each firewall, a new virus was installed in his computer.

"What the heck?" he asked. Finally noticing he couldn't do much, he pulled out the USB and tried to restore his computer. After a couple of minutes, he could get everything back to normal, but for a moment his heart had stopped. That computer had a lot of information about the team and the Justice League, if that information was compromised it would have been his fault. "Whatever is inside that USB it's very well protected," he said looking up at Aqualad.

"If it's something so important, what was Firefly doing with it?" wondered Aqualad. They all knew Firefly wasn't one of the smartest villains they had fought, so he was probably working as the middle man for someone else.

"Should we tell the Justice League about this?" asked Rocket. The team agreed not to tell the Justice League about it until they could figure out what it was. Right now, the Justice League was very busy trying to figure out what had happened last years, so bothering them with something like that would just waste their time. After a while of pointless conversation, Robin left the cave along with Artemis since both were going back to Gotham, but they parted ways in the alley and each of them went home.

Wayne Manor- 11:15 P.M-

Robin walked into the Batcave only to find it empty. He looked at the big computer that sat unattended against the wall, then he looked at the USB that had found its way back into his hand. He wanted to plug it in and see what was inside, he was really curious about it, but even with all the technology in the super computer, the virus might still damage or corrupt Batman's files. He gave one last glance to the USB, and just as he was about to leave he felt a light tap on the shoulder, startled he turned around to see Alfred looking down at him.

"I didn't hear you come in, Master Richard," he said, "did you have a good day?" Robin put the USB away before nodding.

"It was okay I guess. Is he back yet?" he asked taking off his mask to reveal his deep blue eyes.

"Unfortunately, Master Bruce seems to be taking care of some Justice League business and says he won't be back until tomorrow," said Alfred escorting Robin out of the cave and into the manor. He hadn't seen much of Bruce lately, it seemed as if he was always away, whether it was with the Justice League, by himself or with Luscious Fox to talk about Wayne Enterprises. Slowly, both made their way towards their respective rooms, saying goodnight before closing their doors. Robin took his clothes off and threw them on the floor, he usually slept in his underwear and today wasn't an exception. He took the USB and stored it away in the top drawer of his nightstand, and after some tossing and turning he finally fell asleep.

Mount Justice- February 27- 8:36 P.M-

Robin, Zatanna, Miss Martian, Superboy and Aqualad were doing some training with Black Canary when Batman's face popped up on the screen interrupting their practice. The screen showed a split image of his face and a news channel showing the complete chaos that Poison Ivy had formed in New York City.

"Since most of the Justice League is working on figuring out what happened during those 16 hours, I'm going to need you down in New York to take care of Poison Ivy. Think you can handle that?" he asked, the team nodded and started to leave.

"I'll go with them," said Black Canary, but before she could catch up to them, Batman stopped her.

"No, you are needed at the tower," he said before cutting off the transmission. Black Canary ran the other direction while the team took a zeta tube to New York City.

New York City- 8:55 P.M-

The five of them arrived to the city. The first thing they saw were long lines of unoccupied cars that were being run through by equally long vines that had broken their windows. People were running in all directions as more vines popped up from the ground breaking the hard pavement, and at the center of it all sat Poison Ivy with an army of hypnotized men ready to keep anyone away from her. It was clear that she was waiting for someone. Miss Martian created a psychic link, and at the same time she called the other three members of the team.

" _ **Miss Martian and Superboy, try to keep the plants from going any further,"**_ said Aqualad. Miss Martian nodded and flew away towards the end of the vines. _**"Robin, Zatanna, we are going to stop Ivy,"**_ he said and the three of them made their way towards Poison Ivy. As they were closing in, the men around Ivy started to attack them along with her vines. Trying not to hurt them they started to only block their attacks while Poison Ivy watched comfortably from her seat without moving a finger. Ivy let out a small mocking laughter at their clumsy attempts still not getting up from the plant she was using as a chair.

"Come on, I was expecting the big guys, how come they send me their junior league?" she asked placing her hand under her chin. A smirk formed on her face as she extended her arm causing one of the vines to follow her movement, the vine was about to wrap itself around Aqualad when Kid Flash grabbed him and put him on the other side of the street.

"Sorry we are a bit late," he said pointing at Artemis who he had dropped off in front of Poison Ivy. The girl shot an arrow at Ivy which exploded only a few feet away from her making her take a few steps back. Rocket made her way towards the team blasting as many plants as she could until she saw Miss Martian and Superboy struggling in the back.

" _ **I'll stay behind with Superboy and Miss Martian, there are a lot of these vines back there,"**_ said Rocket turning around. At that moment, a vine wrapped itself around Artemis putting her upside down. It seemed like the more she struggled the tighter the vine got, so Robin made his way towards her and dodging another vine he placed a small bomb that exploded right after he left, freeing Artemis. They both landed on their feet and tried to get closer to Ivy.

"You are hurting my babies!" she yelled getting up from her seat, and as she raised both hands, more plants started coming out from the ground. Far away from them, the other three tried to keep the vines under control, Superboy focused on breaking them, Miss Martian tried to redirect them and Rocket just kept blasting them.

"We are never going to finish!" shouted Rocket blasting a large vine that was about to hit a woman trying to run away. Miss Martian was about to answer when she saw a red motorcycle reeving up the street. the driver was clearly a girl, but her face was covered by the black helmet. Miss Martian watched the motorcycle make its way through the vines until it reached the team.

" _ **Guys, seems like you have company,"**_ Miss Martian warned them. Back with the rest of the team, they saw the motorcycle closing in on them and got distracted. Ivy took the chance and sent one of her men to stab Robin, but before he could be stabbed the motorcycle came in between them, the driver kicked the man out of the way and took Robin away by the collar of his suit.

"We are going on a ride!" said a female voice. The Boy Wonder found himself in the back of the bike as his driver went straight into a back street to go around the block. Robin opened his mouth to say something when he saw a vine following them and another one that was about to smash them.

"Look out!" he yelled just as the person driving took a sharp right turn avoiding the vine that slammed the floor so hard, it broke the pavement. "That was so not whelmed," he said looking back at the broken street. The vine was still after them, following them as they drove down the street only to realize it was a dead-end.

"Hold on tight," she said as she turned the bike around and drove past the plant dodging it when it tried to smashed them. Once out of that street, she turned left this time. In that moment, Robin understood what she was doing, this person was going to surprise Ivy by attacking her from the back. "Shit," she said just after seeing the vine going up getting ready to smash them again. When it came down, she drove closer to the wall scratching the bike in the process. It wasn't long till they could see the back of Ivy's head, but instead of attacking her, the girl jumped over her head landing right in front of Ivy. The girl stopped the bike allowing Robin to get off, but she stayed put with one leg on the ground and another one still on the bike.

"What the hell?!" asked Ivy looking at them. Robin looked at the girl for the first time, she wore black combat boots with black pants tugged into them, and a black long-sleeved shirt. If it weren't for the long gray lines on the side of her suit, she would be very hard to see in the dark. The outfit was completed with a pair of black fingerless gloves, a black and gray belt with a black stick hanging from the side and couple of guns that she stored on the side of her legs. He looked up at her face, but it was still covered by the black helmet which she only took off after she started talking.

"I've gotta hand it to you Ivy, New York City has never looked so green," she said revealing her jet-black hair that reached the end of her shoulder blades and a black mask that covered her eyes.

"Nightshade, of course it's you. What are you doing here?" asked Ivy. In that moment, the team learned three things about her: that girl knew Poison Ivy enough to mock her, she was a good driver, and her code name was Nightshade.

"I could ask you the same thing," she answered getting off the bike, "I thought you only worked in Gotham. You know, that's why I tried to stay away from that godforsaken city," Ivy walked closer to her extending her hand, making a vine rise up from the ground right in front of Nightshade. The vine tried to wrap itself around her, but the girl took out the black stick that hung from her hip, and with the push of a button, a sword slid out. Nightshade used the sword to cut the vine while moving out of its way and getting closer to Poison Ivy. Kid Flash watched Nightshade cut the vine, but he didn't notice that a vine was wrapping itself around him until it was too late. Just then the team received a message from Miss Martian.

" _ **Guys, the vines keep expanding, we think we can handle it, but someone needs to get this people out of here,"**_ she said. With everyone else busy, Zatanna figured out her only option was to go by herself, but when she started to leave a vine caught her foot and pulled her back to the ground making her crash against the pavement.

"You're not going anywhere," said Ivy looking at Zatanna right before dodging an oncoming punch from Nightshade. Kid Flash looked around, Artemis and Robin were knocking down more civilians, while Nightshade and Aqualad were fighting Ivy. At this point, only Kid Flash and Zatanna could help Miss Martian and the others, if only they could get out of those vines.

" _ **Yeah, this is going to take a while,"**_ he said struggling to get out. He was thinking about vibrating his way out when a knife brushed past his leg cutting the vine and freeing him. Kid Flash looked up to see Nightshade with her arm still stretched out, so he gave her a friendly nod before running off to help Zatanna. In that moment, Ivy tried to punch the girl, but Aqualad grabbed her fist and pushed her back. With this, the plants and the hypnotized civilians started targeting him and Nightshade. The other two joined them, and while the team was extremely careful not to hurt the civilians, Nightshade was doing the opposite, she was taking them down and making sure they stayed there. The girl took out a gun and started shooting them in the leg which was clearly better than just hitting them in the head.

"Hey!" yelled Robin, "we don't use guns,"

"You should, they are very effective," she said shooting a plant that was coming her way. Robin ran up to her and took the gun away while glaring. Nightshade grabbed her gun trying to snatch it away, but he wouldn't let go.

"Don't touch my things, Bird Boy!" she said glaring back.

"The name's Robin," he told her throwing the gun away. The girl grabbed his collar and was about to say something when Aqualad pushed them both down dodging a car that was thrown their way. After that, the three of them sat on the ground looking up at Clayface.

"You have got to be shitting me!" said Nightshade getting up from the ground. "Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with Gotham's villains today?"

"Liked my little surprise?" asked Poison Ivy sitting back down on the giant vine.

"You brought this gigantic mass of mud here?" asked Artemis. Nightshade let out small laugh and placed her hand on Artemis's shoulder.

"Gigantic mass of mud…. Good one," she said turning around to face Poison Ivy. "I'll take care of Ivy. You can handle Clayface, right?" she asked not really waiting for an answer. Artemis stepped up next to her taking an arrow and placing it on her bow.

"I'll help you," she said shooting at the plants. Nightshade gave her a smirk as she took out her other gun; this time she avoided shooting the civilians and just immobilized them or knocked them out. On the other side of the street, Robin and Aqualad dodged Clayface's fists, until he managed to pick up Robin who placed a bomb on his arm, and as soon as it went off, it froze his arm allowing Aqualad to smash it; and letting Robin to fall to the ground. Unfortunately for them, his arm regenerated and he continued attacking them. Enraged, Clayface grabbed one of the cars left on the street and threw it at them, the boys managed to avoid it, but it was now heading towards Artemis.

"Artemis Watch out!" Yelled Aqualad, the blonde ducked, but this gave Poison Ivy the chance to use one of her vines to grab her. The vine moved the girl closer to Ivy as Artemis struggled to get out.

"It's so cute when they try to escape," said Ivy while chuckling. Artemis tried to use her hands to free herself, but the vine just got tighter making her feel a bit suffocated and trapped. While Artemis kept trying to get away, Nightshade approached them from behind getting ready to strike Poison Ivy with her sword when a vine came in between them.

"Yeah, I should have known that wouldn't work. So, tell me now that we have some time to catch up, how are you?" asked Nightshade trying to get closer to Ivy.

"Cut the crap Nightshade," she said pushing the girl back with the vine, Nightshade let out a small laugh without noticing that another vine was wrapping itself around her feet. "I'm going to wipe that smug smile right off your face," she said right before the vine chucked her towards a building. The girl hit the window, breaking it in the process. Poison Ivy let out a small laugh when she saw that Nightshade was taking her time coming out of the building.

"That's all you can do?" asked Nightshade stepping out from the window. The girl's uniform was torn and she had scratches all over her body with some pieces of glass still embedded in her skin. Ivy's smile turned into a frown and another vine threw Nightshade against a brick wall pushing some of the glasses further inside. Nightshade landed right next to Robin and Aqualad who were fighting Clayface and looked just as exhausted as she did.

"Are you alright?" asked Aqualad, without looking at her; he was getting ready to release some electricity to stop Clayface once and for all. Robin offered his hand to help her up, but the girl simply shrugged it off.

"Don't mind me, I'm a fast healer," she said taking out the remaining shards of glass and dropping the bloody pieces on the ground. Nightshade started making her way back to where Ivy was, but she used another vine to grab Nightshade and drag her towards where Artemis was hanging.

"Well looks like I win this time, Nightshade," she said giving them a mocking smile seeing that Nightshade lacked hers. Poison Ivy looked at the other two and started focusing on them, making it hard for Robin and Aqualad to fight Clayface.

"What is going on over there?" asked Miss Martian redirecting a vine. Zatanna raised her head just in time to see Nightshade being flung into the window. She winced sharing her pain. "Who is she?"

"Apparently her name is Nightshade, she seems to have some history with Poison Ivy," said Zatanna watching the girl walk back towards Ivy only to be thrown against another building. "I think it's safe to say it's not a good one," she said using her magic to cover some civilians before they could be hit by a vine. The five of them kept holding back the vines and saving the civilians while the others found themselves stuck.

Nightshade and Artemis hung side by side; the blonde couldn't help but look at the new girl. She had been distracted, looking around the place for something, but she couldn't see what until Nightshade started talking. "Hey Blondie, see that plant over there?" whispered Nightshade "the one where Ivy seats?" Artemis nodded.

"It's not Blondie, it's Artemis," she told her glaring at her. Nightshade matched her eyes and gave her a slight smirk.

"I don't care. I think that if we take it down, the other vines will wither. It's only a theory though, I don't really know what will happen. Would you help me find out?" she asked looking at Artemis. The difference between the way the vines were wrapped around each one of them showed how much of a threat Ivy thought they were, the vine around Nightshade was wrapped around her legs, waist and arms leaving only her shoulders and head free. On the other hand, the vine around Artemis, only reached her waist leaving her arms dangling free over her head which made her more suitable to attack the vine.

"On it," answered Artemis reaching down to grab an arrow from the ground. Poison Ivy lifted her head just as Artemis grabbed the arrow and hid it behind her back. Ivy walked towards Artemis, moving the girls farther apart.

"What should I do with you?" asked ivy looking at her. Artemis tried not to say anything, she just stared into her eyes until Nightshade started laughing. The black-haired girl gave her a smirk as they stared at each other.

"Are you serious?!" she asked loudly, "I thought you had it figured out already, or did you not think you would get this far?" she asked moving her hand slowly towards her belt. Poison Ivy glared at her while Nightshade kept talking "I bet this will probably work as a friendly reminder… This is my city, bitch," she told her while pressing a button on the belt that turned her motorcycle on and made it accelerate towards them forcing Poison Ivy to move out of the way. This allowed Artemis some room to throw the explosive arrow at the plant which, just like Nightshade predicted, withered the rest releasing the girls. They turned around just in time to see Clayface being taken down by Aqualad and Robin. The guys had combined Aqualad's electricity with one of Robin's gadgets generating enough power to turn him into a useless blob.

Nightshade made her way towards Poison Ivy and leaned down to match her eyes. "Just like old times, huh? By the way, when you get to Belle Reve say hello to our perky friend," she said before the rest of the team joined her to put Ivy in cuffs.

"Thank you for the assistance," he said extending his hand for her to shake it, which she did after a while of looking at it. "I'm Aqualad, these are Robin, Artemis, Zatanna, Kid Flash, Rocket, Superboy and Miss Martian. We work with the Justice League," he told her. Nightshade looked at them for a while and then she looked at the destroyed city.

"Good, then I'll leave the cleaning up to you guys," she said giving Ivy one last smirk.

"I thought you said this was your city, why don't you take care of that on your own?" asked Robin a little irritated.

"Sorry Blunder Boy, I'm not that big on cleaning," she told him walking away from them, "Oh and by the way, I'm going to need my knife back. It's one of my favorites," she said looking at Kid Flash while leaning down to pick up the gun Robin had thrown away.

"Wait, it was you the other night?" asked Kid Flash. She didn't answer, she just walked towards her bike and put her helmet on.

"Look me up if you're ever back in New York," she said before driving away.

"Her name was Nightshade, right?" asked Robin opening his holographic computer. He started searching for her name, when he heard Poison Ivy laughing. They all turned around to meet her gaze.

"you're not going to find anything," she told them, "I really wouldn't mess with her if I were you," she said letting out another laugh.

"Shut up already," said an annoyed Artemis. Still the team exchanged worried looks as they confirmed that what Poison Ivy had said was true. Her name couldn't be found anywhere.

Manhattan, New York City- 11:43 P.M-

Nightshade got into an apartment building through one of the windows. She turned on the lights of the apartment only to find a tall black-haired boy sitting on the couch staring at his phone, she had come to know that boy as Lance Davis, the oldest of the Davis siblings. Nightshade sighed and put her things down on the floor right next to the door. She walked up to the kitchen trying to ignore him as she pulled out some leftovers from the fridge. She was really hoping he had just fallen asleep with his eyes open. Honestly, she was not in the mood for talking, and that was why when he spoke she let out a disappointed sigh.

"Dammit," she said under her breath.

"You are late," he finally said with a light British accent, he stood up from the couch and walked up to Nightshade showing how tall he was, and how short Nightshade was. While he stood at a great 5'10, she was barely 5'2, so the difference between them was evident. Nightshade placed the leftovers on the counter and wiped her mouth with her hand, making sure she had swallowed everything before talking.

"It dragged on a little bit longer than I thought it would," she said moving away from him, she hated having to look up at his face. It's not like there was something wrong with it, he had a very handsome face, sharp features and deep brown eyes that sort of invited you in, but her neck hurt when she looked up. "They are…. a very interesting group of people I guess," she told him putting more food in her mouth.

"Are you really going to go through with this?" he asked raising an eyebrow. Nightshade looked up at him while swallowing her food.

"Of course, I need to get that USB back, what do you think The Light would do if they found out the Justice league had that thing?" she asked him putting the leftovers aside.

"Yeah, I get it, but why do _you_ have to go? I think we should have sent Skye, she is more likeable," he said taking the food and putting it back in the fridge. He was sure she wasn't going to eat anymore since she had already gulfed down a bit more than half the container.

"Your sister might be more likable, but I'm a better fighter," she said taking off her mask revealing her dark brown eyes that were staring right into his.

"Have I ever told you that your arrogant attitude annoys me?" he asked her leaning down closer to her face. They stared at each other for a while, until Lance started talking, "you took the wrong turn," he reminded her while whispering in her ear. Nightshade glared at him before punching him in the stomach pushing him away from her, right after that, she felt a sharp pain run through her wounds. She looked at them, and saw that there were still some pieces of glass inside.

Lance noticed and took out a first aid kit and used it to take out the small pieces of glass, then he disinfected the wounds, and finally, he took a needle and a threat and started stitching up the wounds while Nightshade winced in pain. "Don't you have anything else to do?" she asked trying to make light conversation until she noticed that there were a few people missing from the room. "Where are they?" she asked looking around.

"They went out after you crashed against that glass. I'm surprised my sister didn't show up there," he said finishing up the stitches. Nightshade got off the counter and started walking towards her room and that was when he noticed she was limping, putting her weight on her right leg. A worried look grew on his face after he saw the multiple cuts all over her body. "Jade," he called out making her turn around, "don't push yourself too much," he told her, she didn't say anything, she just turned back around and disappeared into the shadowed hall.


	2. Copy Cat

**Just a disclaimer, Nightshade, Copy Cat, Lance and SKye are original characters.**

Star City- March 6- 4:46 P.M-

Artemis and Green Arrow had just finished patrolling, they were jumping rooftops in silence until Green Arrow started talking, "I heard about the new girl, are you thinking about letting her join the team?" Asked Green Arrow walking ahead of Artemis, "Batman didn't seemed too convinced. He even started following her around in New York City," he said letting out a small laugh.

"Well, she just popped out of nowhere, no one had heard of her, and she there's no information on her. Can we just trust someone like that? Would you?" she asked and after a long silence, she continued, "either way is not like she was interested in joining the team; she was doing just fine on her own," she said and the two of them kept walking. It didn't take long for Green Arrow to start talking again.

"You were once an outsider too. I think, that if you do see her again, she should be allowed the benefit of the doubt," he said walking ahead of her. Artemis stopped walking and watched Oliver's back as her mind drifted away to her first meeting with the team and everything that had happened after that. She let out a loud sigh and just when she was about to start walking, they heard an explosion coming from the bank a block away from where they were standing. The two of them turned around in time to see people running away from the building, and police cars lining up around it. Green Arrow and Artemis rushed to the edge of the rooftop and looked down, but before they could jump into action, the thief flew out of the bank letting the police and the few reporters that had gathered take a good look at him. He spotted the two of them and so he flew in their direction with the money bag over his broad shoulders.

"No way," whispered Artemis as her eyes landed on no one other than Superman.

"Superman?" asked Green Arrow, "What are you doing?" he asked, but he didn't say anything, he just targeted them with his heat vision, but they moved away and decided to escape instead of facing the Man of Steel in a fight they wouldn't win.

"Did Superman just…" said Artemis, but she couldn't quite finish that sentence since she didn't understand what had happened.

"We're going to the tower," said Green Arrow already trying to contact Batman. Something was not right, Superman wouldn't do something like that, after all it was the big blue boy scout they were talking about.

Manhattan, New York City- March 10- 12:43 P.M-

" _The crime wave continues to spread all over the country as members of the Justice League are spotted robbing banks, museums and really anything valuable they can find. Protestors are demanding the government do something about the Justice League as more members and their sidekicks are getting involved in these crimes,"_ The reporter stopped talking to show some footage where Aqualad broke into a museum and then another where Wonder Woman assaulted some people on the street.

"Oh, this is amazing," said Lance looking at the T.V. in the living room. He sat on the couch with his laptop right next to him and some chips on the other side, he had been sitting there all morning trying to fix the system they had built to track down crimes happening in New York City. In that moment, Jade walked into the room dressed in all black.

"What is?" asked Jade picking up her keys from the counter as she was getting ready to get out, when Lance didn't answer, she walked up to the T.V. and saw the news coverage on the Justice League and their sidekicks. "I'm going to get changed," she said, but before she could move, the door to their apartment opened to reveal a very euphoric teenager that simply refused to step inside. She started jumping up and down letting her long, wavy brown hair bounce off her back.

"I think it's trying to communicate," said Lance putting his hand under his chin while he stared at his sister. Finally, Jade moved away from the T.V. and the brunette threw herself at her, pulling Nightshade into an unwanted and extremely uncomfortable hug. Suddenly small sparks started flying out of the brunette's body, but it wasn't until they got dangerously close to the electronics that Lance cleared up his throat. "Skye! You need to calm down or I'm going to have to start all over with the tracking system that you messed up in the first place," he said barely looking up from the laptop.

"I already apologized about that!" she said still hugging Jade. "Anyway, I just love the annoyed face Jade makes when I hug her," she said looking back at the girl who was struggling to get out. To Lance, it looked a lot like a prey struggling to get out of its predator's control, and with that thought in mind, he couldn't help but smile, until a message popped up on his screen.

"Sorry to ruin whatever this, but Toyman stole a microchip from some researchers and Mayor Hall wants it back," said Lance glancing at his laptop. "He made sure to ask that you avoid destroying the city this time," he said. Skye let go of Jade as her expression suddenly turned serious, it was eerie how fast she could change her attitude, thought Jade while reaching down for her belt and guns, she would just have to go out like that.

"I guess he has to specify since you destroyed downtown New York when you fought Poison Ivy," said Skye.

"Jade! Just one more thing, I won't be able to communicate with you while I fix this, so for now you're on your own," he said pointing at the earbud. Jade nodded after she finished adjusting her mask over her eyes and rushed out through the fire escape ladder.

New York City- 1:46 P.M-

Kid Flash ran through New York City looking for Nightshade. He, Batman, and Robin were looking for Nightshade around the city, but since the dynamic duo had taken the east side, he was now stuck looking for her on the west side of New York. It didn't take him that long to find her thought, since the girl flew right past him and crashed against the building across the street.

"Woah!" he said managing to stop right before Nightshade, who had been thrown out of a building, could hit him. Kid Flash ran up to her offering his hand to help her up. She looked pretty much the same, except she wasn't wearing her uniform, just head to toe black civilian clothes along with her mask and her belt. She must carry that with her all the time, he thought, just like Robin.

"This is going to hurt tomorrow," she said taking his hand before walking away from him to take on the life-sized toy soldier that had thrown her out into the street.

"Dude! We've been trying to find you for like an hour. What the hell?" he asked watching the girl slice the toy soldier with her sword, then taking on another one.

"Not now Flash Kid. I'm kind of in the middle of something," she answered slicing the other one and waiting for Toyman to come out of the building. Instead, he sent another fleet of toy soldiers with real guns into the street.

"It's Kid Flash," he said looking at the growing group of toy soldiers. "You don't have it very easy, do you?" he asked getting ready to run towards the fleet. Nightshade looked at him putting her sword away and taking out her guns.

"No shit," she said running into the crowd while dodging the bullets and shooting them right in the head. One of the toys tried to hit her with its gun, but the girl ducked and shot it in the back, breaking it. She pulled out a small metal ball from her belt and threw it forward into the crowd of toy soldiers, she moved back and waited for the explosion. While Nightshade took the slow way out, Kid Flash ran through the group taking their guns and knocking them to the ground. Before Nightshade had even taken out half of the toys, Kid Flash had already gone into the building and taken Toyman out. He put the short man right in front of Nightshade while giving her a smirk.

"Do you have some time now?" he scoffed while the girl put away her guns.

"Show off," she said right before taking Toyman from him and dragging him through the street pushing him against the wall. "Hand it over," she said extending her hand in front of his face.

"What do you mean?" he asked trying to pretend he didn't know what she was talking about, his expression showed he was trying to mock her, but it soon changed when she stuck a knife into the wall right next to his face. "Fine, fine. Don't hurt me, okay?" he pleaded taking out a microchip and placing it on her palm.

"Come on, I would never hurt you…much," she said taking the knife out of the wall and letting the NYPD take Toyman away. Nightshade handed the microchip to a detective, and without saying another word the girl walked back towards Kid Flash. "So? What do you need?" she asked pressing a button on her belt that brought her bike over.

"Actually... I don't know, Batman just told me to look for you," he said picking up one of the toy soldier's arms. "This is going to be a great souvenir," he said examining it. A crowd had gathered around the area as the police was trying to hold them off, some of them were angry while another portion of the crowd cheered and called after them. Kid Flash heard his name and rushed to the crowd, a little girl extended a note book and asked for an autograph, but just as he was about to take the book Nightshade pulled him back.

"Don't. This is why you people are so easy to target," she said glaring at the girl. Nightshade pulled him away from the crowd and as they were leaving, Batman and Robin landed right in front of them and the crowd released a collective gasp. "You're not as intimidating in the daylight. I mean you are, just not enough," she said letting go of Kid Flash's arm.

"The robberies, tell us what you know," he said in his deep, raspy voice.

"What makes you think that I know anything about it?" she asked.

"You said we were an easy target. Who's after us?" he asked. Nightshade looked down at her phone and let out a heavy sigh before agreeing to go with the three of them to Mount Justice.

Mount Justice- 4:26 P.M-

The rest of the team had gathered in the mission room, they were waiting for Batman who had called them all in. They didn't have to wait long though; because a few minutes after they had gathered, Batman and Robin walked into the room followed by Kid Flash who stood out form the serious group. The speedster rushed to his girlfriend's side and that was when they saw Nightshade looking around the cave as she made her way towards them. Batman stood in front of the team and pulled up the screen that showed the multiple robberies committed by the Justice league and some members of the team.

"As you already know, this wasn't done by the Justice League, each member was accounted for at the time of the robberies," he explained pausing the videos and switching to a news show that was calling out the Justice League. The newscaster said the League had to step up and face the consequences, another one was calling them fallen heroes, but none of them seemed to doubt their involvement with the robberies.

"So someone's framing us, but why?" asked Aqualad.

"To keep us busy. They are trying to have us focus on raising our credibility while they are free to commit more robberies," he said playing a video that had Aqualad and Kid Flash breaking into an art museum and another one that had Rocket and Artemis beating up bystanders. "For now, we're going to give them what they want, that's why it will be your job to find the real culprit," he said.

"Okay, I get that, but what is _she_ doing here?" asked Zatanna pointing at Nightshade.

"We suspect a shapeshifter by the name of Copy Cat; Nightshade has dealt with in the past making her the most qualified to give this mission briefing," as he said that, Nightshade walked to the front while looking at her phone. On her screen was a message with a map of Metropolis with a few buildings circled in red, after the map there was a message from Lance.

"Do you have a map of Metropolis?" she asked quietly before looking up at the team. Batman pulled it up on the screen for her and the girl examined it for a while. "Knowing the way she works, I narrowed down the possible places where she could show up next to two buildings in Metropolis. If you split in two teams and head to each one of these places, you could have an advantage," she said putting her phone away.

"What does she do exactly?" asked Robin. By now it was clear that she had no intention of going with them, so asking why she said 'you' instead of 'we' was a pointless question, instead he decided to go with something that would actually help them.

"She's a shapeshifter with a fancy for money and shiny things, what else do you want to know?" she explained, but then Batman gave her a glare that made her explain further. "As scary over there said, her name is Copy Cat. She is able to copy the appearance and powers of the people she touches, not only that, but she can also create a lot of copies of herself which might explain the multiple team ups," she said. The team didn't have any information on a criminal named Copy Cat, and they doubted the League had any or they wouldn't need Nightshade.

"Where are you going?" asked Aqualad as he watched the girl walking out of the room.

"Home. Good luck with Copy Cat, you'll need it," she said before disappearing into the cave. Batman and the team watched her leave before they went back to the briefing.

"For now, the league must be seen doing something else, so we leave this up to you. That applies for the four of you as well, join your respective mentors for the time being," he said looking at Aqualad, Kid Flash, Rocket and Artemis. He understood why Nightshade had pulled Kid Flash away from the crowd, if Copy Cat was there, she could have stolen his powers; though he still felt that something was off, after all he had seen her glare intently at that little girl.

Metropolis Docks- 12:20 A.M

Robin and Zatanna stepped into the place, they found it completely empty aside from the boats and huge containers that were supposed to be carrying all sorts of valuables that came from all over the world. After walking around for a while, they decided to split up to cover more ground. Zatanna flew through the long lines of containers until she spotted one that was halfway open, slowly she stepped inside and saw a huge cargo of wooden boxes and in the back two men trying to pry it open.

"Hey!" she said getting their attention.

"Oh look, it's one of the sidekicks!" said one of them placing his hands on his hips. "I saw you heroes in the news, you came to give us a hand?" he asked while his friend laughed at Zatanna. She ignored the comment and just used a spell to pin them to the other side of the container. It didn't look like these guys were the ones trying to frame the Justice League, but they had still pissed her off. While Zatanna dealt with them, Robin had just finished searching his side.

" _ **Found Anything?"**_ he asked over the communicator, but before he could wait for her reply, he heard gunshots coming from her side. Robin rushed towards the sound and found that Zatanna had created a magic force field to deflect the bullets; after that, she cast a spell that melted the guns forcing them to drop them to the ground which allowed Robin to knock them out with a punch.

"Thanks," she said, "but either way they weren't the ones we're looking for."

"Let's just hope the others found something," said Robin calling Miss Martian to check up on them.

National Bank, Metropolis- 12:20 A.M-

Miss Martian and Superboy entered the National Bank through the roof, they set themselves on the first floor ready to fight anything that might come their way, but after some time they started to relax. Superboy had his eyes set on one of the small windows that gave him a view of all the people walking on the busy streets of the city. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a motorcycle revving up the street, it was a few miles away, but he could clearly hear it getting closer. He stared out the window for a while until he saw Robin in his bike making his way towards them. "Robin is here," he told Miss Martian who joined him by the window, and sure enough there was Robin making his way towards them. The two of them looked at each other, the nature of the mission made them wonder if the one they were seeing was actually Robin, so the they agreed to be cautious.

"Hey, how's it going in here?" asked Robin walking into the place after leaving his bike outside.

"No one has come by, what about you? Where's Zatanna?" asked Superboy moving away from the window. She could be coming, but it was still odd that he had arrived before her.

"She told me to go ahead," said Robin checking out the vault. Superboy and Miss Martian exchanged looks, but it wasn't until they received a call from Robin, the real Robin, that their suspicion was confirmed.

" _ **Did you find anything?"**_ he asked.

" _ **She's here,"**_ said Miss Martian just in time to see Robin turn into a tall, dark skinned woman with long silver hair that reached her waist matching her white outfit that included a crop top, pants that were cut open on the sides showing most of her thighs, knee high boots and long white gloves that covered her arms, but left out her long, claw-like fingernails. She flashed them a smile and then more copies of her started showing up in the room. The woman and her copies started attacking them, but every time Superboy or Miss Martian tried to touch a copy, it would disappear and another one would come out in its place.

"Seems like you knew about me already. Let me guess, it was Nightshade," she said managing to land a punch that sent Superboy to the other side of the room. "Looks like I still had some super strength left from Superman. So you met Nightshade, isn't she a pain in the ass?" The woman approached him and laid a hand on his shoulder, but Superboy grabbed it and threw her against the wall. The woman fell to the ground right after her back hit the wall, but instead of trying to attack she stood up and stared at Superboy as he fell to his knees.

"What is going on?" he asked looking at her.

"Nothing much, I just borrowed your powers. Normally it doesn't do a lot, that's why I could copy the League's powers and appearance, but I need you out of the way for now," she said walking up to him and placing her hand back on his shoulder, after a few seconds, Superboy was knocked out. Copy Cat turned to face Miss Martian as each one of the copies disappeared leaving only the two of them in the room. She slowly started turning into Superboy allowing her to easily lift Miss Martian up in the air and throw her against the wall, she then walked towards the Martian lifting a pipe over her head when they heard a window break and in what looked like seconds, Nightshade appeared in front of Copy Cat blocking the hit with her sword.

"I thought you weren't coming," said Miss Martian looking up at the girl that had protected her, Nightshade looked down at her and even if she couldn't see it, she could feel the glare that was being hidden by the black mask.

"Oh come on, just be thankful that I'm here," she said before staring back at Copy Cat who returned to her normal form the moment she saw the black-haired girl.

"Are you back with the good guys. Could you make up your mind? It's getting hard to keep up," she said getting closer to her. Nightshade looked past her to see Superboy unconscious on the floor, and pushed Copy Cat back with a kick just as Robin and Zatanna appeared in the room. Meanwhile, Robin and Zatanna helped Miss Martian get up from the ground and moved her away from the fight.

"I fucking knew it was you, though I didn't want to believe you could be so stupid to pick a fight with the Justice League," said Nightshade pushing Copy Cat away from her. Robin took out his birdarangs and threw them at her, but the woman just dodged them. Slowly, Copy Cat started to turn into Aqualad, and then created more copies of herself in the form of Superboy, Artemis and Kid Flash. Superboy's copy started attacking Miss Martian, while Artemis faced Robin, and Zatanna tried to strike Kid Flash with a spell.

The Boy Wonder moved out of the way right before an arrow could hit him and threw a couple of birdarangs at her, but the moment it hit her, the copy disappeared and another one took its place. On the other side of the room, Miss Martian was facing the same luck with Superboy, no mattered what she threw at him, he would disappear and another one would come out. Aside from that, the copies could touch them, and use their teammates' powers and weapons against them.

While the team dealt with their frustration, Nightshade was fighting Copy Cat who was constantly changing forms. From Aqualad to Rocket, the girl had managed to hold her back until Copy Cat changed back to her original form. "Now we're talking," said Nightshade looking at the woman.

"They don't like you much, do they?" she asked attacking Nightshade with her nails, but she moved away from her and Copy Cat only managed to scratch her arm. "I will always wonder how someone like you has managed to stay alive all this time," she said. Copy Cat pinned her down on the ground and scratched her across the chest before Nightshade could kick her away.

"You should stop talking," she said charging at Copy Cat who blocked the hit and kicked Nightshade away from her allowing the teenager to take out a knife and throw it at Copy Cat. The knife managed to scratch her left arm tearing up her glove, revealing an ugly scar, as if someone had burned her skin. "That's still there, huh? I don't believe I apologized for it, not like I was planning to," she said. An enraged Copy Cat got ready to attack her, but was intercepted by Superboy who pinned her on the ground before she could move. As soon as he did that, the girl lost her focus and the copies disappeared, but they had left the rest of the team exhausted, the others made their way towards Superboy when Copy Cat turned into Aqualad and kicked him away. She created more copies of herself and that was when Nightshade grabbed Miss Martian collar and pulled her away with the team following them closely; they ran deeper into the building, trying to get away from the copies.

"Okay Nightshade, spit it out. How do we stop her?" he asked running next to her with the copies right behind them. It was then that he spotted an air vent right ahead. The boy wonder used a smoke pellet to distract the copy and motioned them to get inside, he then grabbed Nightshade's hand leading her to the air vent. Once the air cleared up, Aqualad changed back into Copy Cat who searched around for them, and ended up going deeper into the building.

"Start talking," said Robin crawling through the air vent, Nightshade stared at him while she crawled behind him, she knew he was angry, but she couldn't focus on anything other than his butt. He has a better butt than I do, she thought feeling a little jealous to be honest. "Are you listening to me?" he asked trying to look back at her, but the air vent was too tight.

"Right, we need to stop the butt—I mean Copy Cat," she said clearing her throat. "Well it's pretty easy, we just have to knock her out"

"Yeah _really_ easy, we don't even know which one she is," said Zatanna clearly irritated.

"Well it might be. If we get give her something that she's unable to ignore," said Miss Martian just as they reached the end of the air vent.

"Easier said than done, what could we use?" asked Superboy looking ahead at Nightshade. Based on what they had seen, when it came to Nightshade, Copy Cat always seemed to behave differently. The others followed his gaze and Nightshade let out a long sigh.

"So I'm the bait then?" asked Nightshade. Robin nodded and kicked the air vent before jumping down.

"They were heading to the roof," he said and started running in the same direction they had left. Nightshade stopped running when she heard the word roof, she even hesitated thinking she could just bail, they weren't her team and it's not like she owed them something. Before she could make up her mind, Superboy pulled her along with him towards the roof. Nightshade opened the door to the roof and slowly stepped inside, at some point in the night it had started raining so it was all wet and slippery. Oh this is just great! She thought before spotting the copies on the other end of the Victorian style roof, they had their back turned to her since they were scanning the ground for them.

"Hey, bitch! Looking for someone?" she asked while taking out a knife. The copies ran towards her constantly changing their form, Nightshade didn't move, she just waited for them to reach her and then dodged their attacks. Realizing she couldn't keep it up for long, she started running towards the back with the copies following her, the first one to catch up to her was Kid Flash's copy who tripped her and made her fall almost over the edge. She quickly got up dodging their attacks once again, but she did it slowly fearing she would slip and fall off the roof. Her speed allowed the copies to hit her multiple times and take her down, her head dangling over the edge. The copies finally merged into one and Copy Cat revealed herself as the one sitting on top of Nightshade.

"What happened, Nightshade? Where did all the attitude go?" asked Copy Cat trying to mock her as she struggled to get her off. Nightshade's feet felt weak and she could feel her body trembling every time she thought about how high she was. The woman scratched her across the face and watched her wince in pain with a smile on her face. "I missed that look on your face," she said getting closer to her, her chest pressing against Nightshade's so that she could get a closer look.

"Enjoy it while you can," said Nightshade before pushing her off her and over the edge. Copy Cat closed her eyes thinking she was going to fall when she felt that someone grabbed her hand.

Nightshade held onto Copy Cat "have you turned soft?" she asked looking up at the girl expecting to see her mad, but instead she smiled and let go of her hand. Copy Cat thought she was going to die until she felt Superboy's grip around her arm, he pulled her up, but before he could do anything, Copy Cat scratched him. As she tried to get away, Zatanna used a spell that chained her feet making her fall flat on her face. Miss Martian then used her powers to lift a metal pipe and swung it at her face, finally knocking her out.

"What was that?" asked Robin turning around to face Nightshade.

"My hand slipped," she told him walking away from the roof and to the safety of the main floor.

The four team members met her downstairs with an unconscious Copy Cat over Superboy's shoulder. Nightshade was getting ready to leave when Superboy stopped her. "Why did you come?" he asked remembering how uninterested she looked back at the cave. The girl didn't answer, she just leaned down to grab one of her knives.

"Where you worried about us?" asked Zatanna crossing her arms over her chest. Nightshade turned around to look at her, it's not that she was worried about them….was she? She thought, but she couldn't come up with a better explanation as to why she had to intervene in their mission. "You were, weren't you?" Zatanna kept asking as an annoyed look grew on Nightshade's face.

"You're not that important. I just hadn't seen Copy Cat in a while," she said. Lousy excuse, but she just had to say something. "Now that I did, I'm leaving," she said turning her back on them.

"Wait! We wanted to wait and say this with everyone present, but I think now is a pretty good time," said Robin "we want you to join the team. With the League currently busy, we'll have to deal with more missions like this and we could use the extra help," he said. Nightshade stared at them for a few seconds before letting out a laugh.

"You're serious? I don't do things the same way you do. I have no problem with killing, and most of the time I like to play dirty. Do you think I'll be able to fit in with your team, Bird boy?" she asked.

"It's Robin," he corrected her.

"Yeah, yeah. Think it over and then get back to me," she said pulling out something that looked like a pager, and then throwing it at him. Meanwhile, the four of them were left behind wondering if inviting Nightshade into the team had been such a good idea after all.


	3. Trial Period

Mount Justice- March 15- 11:46 A.M-

Kid Flash, Robin, Miss Martian, Rocket and Aqualad were having a small meeting in the mission room, they were debating whether they should take back Nightshade's invitation to join the team or not. Kid Flash and Robin thought it would be good for the team, and even if they weren't there, Artemis, Zatanna and Superboy thought the same thing, while the others thought she represented an unnecessary risk for the team. They had gone over the pros and cons of having her in the team and so far, the cons were wining until Kid Flash suggested a trial period that most of them seemed to agree with.

"We should contact Batman and the League to see what they think about this," said Aqualad right before an alarm went off.

"That's gonna have to wait, looks like the Terror Twins are attacking Metropolis," said Kid Flash looking at the screen that had popped up in the middle of the room. The team ran towards Miss Martian's ship and quickly took off. "Superboy and Zatanna are already there, Artemis is on her way too," he said after hanging up with Artemis.

"Have you managed to find anything on Nightshade, yet?" asked Aqualad, breaking the silence that had formed in the ship. Robin opened his computer to reveal an empty file with just the name 'Nightshade' written on it. "How is that even possible?" he asked, now just thinking out loud. The team didn't have an answer, it was odd to find someone without a record, especially someone that had been working on a city like New York. In that moment, they heard an explosion coming from the ground just as they were flying past S.T.A.R Labs. Through the smoke, the team could see people trying to run out of the building, but some of them got trapped under the rubbles.

"Rocket, can you handle that?" asked Aqualad looking down at the S.T.A.R Labs. The girl nodded and got ready to jump out the ship when Robin stopped her.

"Wait. Take this," he said handing Rocket the pager Nightshade had given him. "Let's start the trail period with something easy," he said. Rocket looked at the pager before jumping off the ship with the tiny box in her hand.

S.T.A.R Labs- 2:15 P.M-

Rocket dropped safely on the ground and quickly examined the pager, it had a single button on it, so without thinking it twice she pressed it. The pager started vibrating in her hand and a dim red light was lit up. More people had started to run out of the building, so Rocket put the pager on her pocket and started helping them. At the entrance, she found a security guard trapped under a piece of construction; so Rocket created a force bubble around the man that moved the debris away allowing him to move and run away from the building. She had been helping people out for a while when she felt a light tap on her shoulder, Rocket turned around to see Nightshade standing behind her.

"You called?" she asked.

"Took you long enough," answered Rocket. "Help me get these people out of here, before the building collapses," she said. Both girls ran into S.T.A.R Labs, it looked like most of the workers in the first floor had made it out. Nightshade heard a bit of static, before a familiar British accent spoke into her ear.

" _ **I'm in the system,"**_ said Lance after hacking into S.T.A.R Labs. _**"The problem seems to be coming from a room in the basement, but there are more people trapped in the upper floors,"**_ he said. Shit, she thought running through the halls looking into each room trying to find someone, but as Lance had said, most of the people were in the top floors.

"How about we split up, I take the lower levels and you check the others," said Nightshade hoping Rocket would say yes, so she could go to the basement.

"No way. You are coming with me, we'll scan this place from the top down," she said grabbing Nightshade and taking her to the top floor with her. Both girls made their way through the floors, taking people out of offices and from under the debris if necessary. Rocket put people inside force bubbles and then safely took them outside while Nightshade kept checking the other rooms and floors. They were almost halfway through when they heard another loud explosion that shook the whole building causing some of the lamps to flicker and others to fall off. Rocket noticed that one of the lamps was about to fall on top of Nightshade, but before it could, she covered the girl with a force bubble causing the lamp to bounce off. "What the hell was that?" she asked looking over at Nightshade. The girls stood on the fourth floor and there was no way for them to see what was going on underneath them.

"You should have let me check the lower levels," she said.

"Are you trying to put the blame on me?" she asked glaring at Nightshade.

"No, I'm just saying that going around together like we're in some sort of field trip is not nearly as efficient as you think," answered Nightshade returning the glare.

"You're starting to get on my nerves," said Rocket throwing Nightshade against the wall. Nightshade gave her a smirk before moving away from the wall and ran towards Rocket to punch her across the face. Rocket flew towards Nightshade and pinned her to the floor where she returned the punch and a fight between the girls broke out. While on the floor, Nightshade grabbed Rocket's collar and turned the girl around so now she was on top, but was soon kicked away from her. Rocket started throwing energy blasts at Nightshade, but she managed to avoid them all, and got close enough to kick her in the chest. Then, right when Rocket was getting up and Nightshade was taking out her sword, there was another loud bang that caused the building to shake again.

"Hey! I'm sure you have a lot of things to discuss, but right now is not a good time," said one of the workers at S.T.A.R Labs. Rocket and Nightshade looked at each other and lowered their guards, but just as he said that, they heard another explosion and the floor crumbled under their feet and everyone fell through. Rocket managed to create a force bubble around the civilians so they remained unharmed when they reached the first floor, but she intentionally missed Nightshade.

Nightshade landed next to a piece of rubble, she was lucky the fall had only given her a few scratches, but it had also reaffirmed her believe that high places were a no go for her. "That was childish!" yelled Nightshade to make sure Rocket heard her.

"You're still alive!" she yelled back and while she kept talking, Nightshade started getting up from the ground.

" _ **What was that?"**_ asked Nightshade using the wall to help her up, resting her body against it. She talked softly to make sure that Rocket wouldn't hear her.

" _ **That was Blockbuster. He broke a few gas pipes causing the explosions,"**_ explained Lance going through the security footage to figure out how he had gotten into S.T.A.R Labs. While Lance checked that, the smoke around the room disappeared, and Rocket and Nightshade found themselves standing right in front of Blockbuster. He was at least twice their size and his gray skin made him look like a demon.

"Any ideas?" asked Rocket still holding the others inside the force bubble.

"Oh look at that, I was just about to ask you the same thing," she answered turning around in time to see Rocket rolling her eyes at her.

Metropolis- 2:22 P.M-

Miss Martian landed the ship in an empty parking lot that was close to where the Terror Twins had been causing a big commotion. The twins were calling after Superboy and Zatanna trying to taunt them as both team members received a beating. Superboy was throw into a building by Tommy Terror, who then leaped into the air and landed on top of Superboy pushing him farther into the building. Both boys fell through the floor and kept punching and pushing each other down until they reached the bottom floor of the building where they created a large crater. Believing he had knocked Superboy out, Tommy started to leave the building until he was pushed against the wall breaking it and landing on the street.

While that was going on, Tuppence Terror was throwing anything she could find at Zatanna while the girl tried to avoid them. She was casting spells to brake everything that came her way, but still she was hit by a car door Tuppence had torn apart from a car on the street. She picked up another thing to throw towards Zatanna, when a birdarang hit her hand forcing her to drop it. Tuppence turned to look in the direction the birdarang had come from only to see the rest of the team standing there.

"Tommy!" she yelled, "look who decided to join us!" Her brother lifted his head right after punching Superboy and putting him on the ground. He jumped in front of the team ready to deliver another punch when Aqualad grabbed his fist and used his water bearers to push him away from the team. Tuppence took the chance and threw a car at them while they were looking at Aqualad, but Miss Martian used her powers to tear it apart right before it could hit them. After that, Miss Martian ripped off a lamp post with her powers and used it as a bat to hit Tuppence a few feet away from them.

Kid Flash ran up to the girl to make sure that she was on the ground when an arrow hit the pavement next to her and started engulfing her in high density foam making it hard for Tuppence to move. "Babe!" he yelled waving his arms at Artemis who had shot the arrow from the top of a building. While looking at his girlfriend, Kid Flash saw Tommy and Aqualad heading her way, both of them struggling to control the other. "Artemis, watch out!" he yelled right before Superboy came out from behind her and took her down just as Aqualad and Tommy hit the spot where Artemis had been standing. Soon, Aqualad and Tommy fell off the building and landed on the ground, but when Tommy was about to deliver another punch, he was hit in the back by an electricity current that knocked him down.

"Dude, no need to be so shaken up," said Robin standing behind him with a Taser in his hand while helping Aqualad up from the ground with the other hand.

"Wow, that was…" started Kid Flash.

"Horrible, never say that again," finished Artemis walking up to them. "Where's Rocket?" she asked looking around trying to find her.

"She's taking care of an explosion at .R. Labs. She and Nightshade should be over here soon," answered Robin. Artemis looked confused, she didn't know Nightshade was with Rocket, or why she was with her, but before she could ask, they heard a cracking sound and turned around to see the Terror Twins getting back up. Tuppence had broken out of Artemis' trap and was now cleaning off the last bits while Tommy got up slowly from the floor rubbing his head.

"This ain't over ya brats," said Tuppence grabbing the street lamp Miss Martian had hit her with and walking towards them. The group got back in fighting position, ready to take on the twins as they launched themselves at the team. Miss Martian was the first one to get hit by Tuppence with the street lamp. "Let's see how ya like that," she said before turning around to do the same with Aqualad. Robin threw another birdarang at her, but instead of hitting her, it exploded right in front of her throwing Tuppence back on the ground. Meanwhile Tommy grabbed Artemis' ankle and threw her to the other side of the street only to be caught by Kid Flash.

"Hey there beautiful," he said while running back to where the team was. He dropped her off and ran towards Tommy tackling him before he could hit Superboy. In that moment, the team received a call from Rocket asking for their help. Which they didn't understand because they didn't know Blockbuster was inside the building.

" _ **Well, we might not be able to make it,"**_ said Zatanna casting a spell on Tommy to keep him on the ground. _**"Actually, we were about to call you,"**_ she said hearing Nightshade yelling in the background and some loud bang following her voice. Zatanna was about to ask if everything was alright when she spotted a car coming her way, so she used her magic to change its course and completely forgot about them.

S.T.A.R Labs- 3:35 P.M-

Rocket and Nightshade stood in front of Blockbuster, their clothes were torn and the exposed skin showed a lot of scratches, mainly caused by the fight between the girls. They stared at the giant, neither one of them had seen him before. Of course, Rocket knew about him, but that was because she had heard the story of how they recued Superboy a million times, and Nightshade knew about him because she had read about him and the C.A.D.M.U.S project before, but they had never actually fought him. Blockbuster raised his fists and tried to smash them, but Nightshade moved out of the way, and Rocket blocked the hit with a force bubble.

After missing them, Blockbuster centered his attention on the workers Inside Rocket's bubble, but due to the strength he was applying, the bubble just grew stronger. Unfortunately for her, Rocket had to stay concentrated or the bubble could break allowing Blockbuster to kill everyone inside. "We have to get them out of here!" yelled Rocket looking back at Nightshade.

"No shit!" said Nightshade as she looked around the room searching for anything she could use to get Blockbuster away from Rocket, and that was when her eyes landed on the fire extinguisher that was resting against the wall.

" _ **What are you doing?"**_ asked Lance looking at her through the cameras.

" _ **No idea, I don't really have much of a plan,"**_ she answered rushing towards it and spraying it all over Blockbuster. "Hey!" she yelled while throwing the empty fire extinguisher at him, finally getting his attention. "Right here, you huge moron!" she said making Blockbuster turn around and run after her.

"Nightshade what the hell?" asked Rocket looking at the girl running away from the giant monster. _**"Guys, we might need your help,"**_ said Rocket watching Nightshade being chased by Blockbuster.

"Relax, take them out. Unlike you, I have you covered!" she yelled. Rocket lost sight of her after the girl took a left turn which led to a flight of stairs that took her to the basement. As Nightshade ran away, Blockbuster tried to smash her a couple of times, but she kept moving out of the way.

" _ **Great idea. Yell at the giant, super strong monster. Great plan Nightshade,"**_ said Lance following her with his eyes.

" _ **He might have super strength, but he's also an idiot,"**_ she said searching for a dead end as she rushed through the rather tight hall. _**"Lance, where do I go now?"**_ she asked looking back to make sure Blockbuster was still following her.

" _ **Take the next left and then a right turn. You should be able to find a dead end,"**_ he told her leaning back on his chair placing his hand under his chin.

Nightshade did just as she was told while checking her gun to see if she had all her bullets, her real bullets not the rubber bullets Batman had given her. When she took the right turn, she finally found herself at a dead end. Just like everywhere else in the building, the walls were painted red, except for the far wall that had been replaced with tall, pristine glass that allowed people to look outside into the underground facilities of S.T.A.R Labs. The girl stopped running and slid under Blockbuster letting him crash against the glass which, surprisingly, didn't break. "Well, there goes my plan," she said looking at Blockbuster.

Blockbuster reached out to grab Nightshade, but she rolled away from his hand while taking out her gun, she quickly aimed and shot at his chest, but the bullet bounced off and hit the window. Of course it won't be that easy, she thought putting it away now knowing that it wouldn't work. She reached down for her sword, but Blockbuster grabbed Nightshade and threw her against the wall creating a huge hole in it, as Nightshade tried to get up Blockbuster grabbed her one more time and threw her again towards the glass window creating a small crack. After that, her injuries got worse and she was having trouble breathing; so much that she couldn't find the strength to get up from the ground.

The girl started crawling her way towards the glass window when she saw someone who could only be Lex Luthor down in the underground labs looking up at them. Luthor gave her a smirk as the girl stared right back at him with her mouth half open as if she was trying to say something. Nightshade wanted to get up and go after him to see if he was real, or just a fragment of her disturbed imagination, but she was unable to move her feet. She watched him tugging away something into the inner pocket of his jacket and then he mouthed something at her right before Blockbuster lifted her up from the ground. The girl got ready to be throw again when Rocket came in through the roof and started hitting Blockbuster with energy beams. He let go of Nightshade and started centering his attention on Rocket giving Nightshade a little bit of time to regain her energy.

"Took you long enough," she said leaning against the wall looking to where Lex had been standing, but the spot was now empty.

"A simple thank you would be enough," said Rocket trying to get Blockbuster out of the dead-end hallway, but he grabbed her foot and slammed her body on the ground.

" _ **Nightshade, what did he say?"**_ asked Lance talking into her ear.

" _ **Couldn't catch it. I'm a little busy, so do me a favor and delete the security footage,"**_ she told him taking out her sword and stabbing Blockbuster in the back with it. She quickly took it out before jumping down form him and stabbed him again on the side. Lance started to protest, so Nightshade took advantage of Blockbuster's shrieks and told him one last time, _**"delete it!"**_ she said, clearly annoyed.

"What is that thing made of?" asked Rocket looking at the bloody sword. Nightshade looked down at Rocket on the ground and gave her a composed smile.

"A simple thank you would be enough," she said helping her up. After being stabbed, Blockbuster went mad and ended up running through another gas pipe causing a bigger explosion and a small fire in the basement. The explosion caused the building to start crumbling down leaving the girls trapped among the fire. Rocket gave Nightshade a look before grabbing her and going through the roof only to be followed by Blockbuster.

"So, what now?" asked Rocket losing all the strength in her legs and falling to the ground. Both of them were badly injured, Rocket had a long cut on her leg and Nightshade was just full of them. She even had pieces of glass embedded in her skin. Aside from that, the fire had expanded and they were surrounded, but Rocket seemed to mind it more than Nightshade. Rocket looked around and found an exposed gas pipe that had remained untouched by Blockbuster. "I have an idea, but you might not like it," she said.

"Right now, I'd go along with anything," answered Nightshade looking in the direction Rocket was pointing. A bit hesitant, Nightshade nodded and Rocket shot the pipe causing yet another explosion that took down the whole building, but the girls didn't move until they saw Blockbuster being crushed under a huge piece of rubble. They covered themselves with one of Rocket's force fields and waited until the whole building had fallen before they stepped out. They turned around to see Blockbuster lying unconscious under the rubbles and right behind him, they saw Miss Martian's ship landing.

"On a scale from 1 to 10, how mad could they be?" asked Nightshade watching as the team ran up to them. They looked at the terrible mess the S.T.A.R Labs building had become. Debris everywhere, and there was not a single column that had been left standing, it was as if it had never been there in the first place. As they scanned the place their eyes landed on both girls; Rocket was helping Nightshade get up and they were holding onto each other since they could barely stay up.

"Maybe 8," she answered looking at their faces and the mess they had left, but at least the people stood safely on the side of the building and as the team gathered around them, so did the S.T.A.R Labs workers. As they got closer, the girls saw that the team looked just as beaten as they did.

"What the hell happened here?" asked Artemis kicking a rock out of the way only to hear Blockbuster grunt softly. "Never mind, got my answer" she said moving away from him. Rocket and Nightshade looked at each other one more time and let out a small laugh.

"Oh fuck it hurts," said Nightshade grabbing her side. They started walking away when someone stopped them. It was the guy that had also stopped the fight between her and Rocket.

"Thank you," he said before letting them walk away. Nightshade was…. surprised, she had never been thanked before and her expression somehow showed it because Rocket hit her softly on the side with her elbow. Aside from causing her extreme pain, she also got her attention.

"Don't let it get to your head, I still don't like you," said Rocket finally feeling that she could stand on her own.

"Don't worry, I don't like you either," she told her moving away from her. Nightshade pressed a button on her belt and her bike found its way to her side.

"Nightshade, the offer still stands if you're interested," he told her. Nightshade stared at him for a few seconds, and since she didn't answer, Aqualad kept talking, "you probably don't know this, but you need us more than what we need you," he said, Nightshade raised an eyebrow.

"Explain yourself," she said putting down her helmet.

"What he's trying to say, is that you could use a couple of lessons on team work. After all, you can't do everything on your own," explained Robin.

" _ **Take it, I don't think a third offer will come any time soon and we need that USB back,"**_ said Lance listening into their conversation.

"Fine, you piqued my interest. Let's see how this team thing works out, Water Boy," she said extending her hand for Aqualad to shake it.

"It's Aqualad," he corrected her watching the girl put on her helmet.

"I'll learn them eventually," she told him and drove off.


	4. Strange

Chicago, Alder Planetarium- March 20- 2:25 A.M-

It was a cold night in Chicago, so cold that Nightshade could see her breath every time she exhaled. The girl had been sent by Batman to investigate a disappearance; one of the scientists that worked in the planetarium, had been reported missing and the last time someone had seen him was the night the team had been fighting Copy Cat. Nightshade agreed to check it out, but she didn't come alone, the girl stood on top of the planetarium waiting for Skye to finish changing into her suit, and when the girl finally showed up, she was wearing a bright yellow and blue jumpsuit that hugged her tiny figure.

"Sorry I took so long. It's been a while since I last put on the suit," she said with her British accent leaking out every word. Nightshade had decided Skye was perfect for a mission that involved breaking into a facility filled with technology, since every time the girl got close to machines they would break, and that was just what she needed to bypass an advanced security system. The black haired girl nodded at her friend and she extended her hand releasing a wave of electricity out of her hand, the electricity fried the security system and the cameras allowing the girls to enter the building knowing that no one would know they were there. They sneaked into the office of the missing investigator and went through his things. "I didn't think you would tell them about Luthor," said Skye looking over her shoulder at Nightshade.

"Yeah, that might earn me some points with Batman and Aqualad," she answered settling down in front of the computer.

"At least you admit that you desperately need them. I don't get it, what would someone want anything to do with an astrophysicist that limited his work to mapping other galaxies?" she asked going through his files while Nightshade checked his computer.

"I'm more concerned about the who would want anything to do with him, rather than the what," said Nightshade reading his investigations and notes until she found one that talked about S.T.A.R Labs. _**"Lance, I need you to check this guy out in the S.T.A.R Labs data base,"**_ she said opening the file. As soon as she heard that, Skye walked closer to the computer and stared at the information, it talked about a group of scientist that had built a satellite model big enough to reach a wider portion of the earth.

" _ **Dr. Lawrence worked in that project for a while, but then it was shut down by the government fearing someone could use it for a different purpose. The information on the satellite was kept at S.T.A.R Labs in case the project was revived,"**_ he said. Nightshade stared at the document that appeared on the screen, the fact that Lawrence had worked with S.T.A.R Labs and that she had seen Luthor at S.T.A.R Labs could not be a coincidence, and now with the man missing, everything seemed to point towards The Light.

"You don't think…" started Skye.

"If they are behind this, then it won't be long till they find us," said Nightshade putting some files in a USB and turning off every computer. "Livewire, fry them," she said, but as she walked away she realized that she had called her by her old code name, something that didn't make Skye too happy. Still, the girl did what she was told and surrounded the computers in electricity that blew their circuits. Skye caught up with Nightshade, but right before they could leave the way they came from, the girl started walking slower while letting out light grunts, suddenly she fell to the ground screaming. Nightshade released an ear-piercing scream while Skye stood behind her frozen in fear not knowing what to do.

"Ni-Nightshade?" she asked watching her friend scream in pain while she grabbed her head. "Jade, are you alright?" Skye tried to grab her shoulder, but Nightshade brushed her off.

"Don't touch me!" she said forcing Skye to pull back her hand. This went on for a couple of minutes until the screaming turned into light grunts and pants. "I'm alright, I'm alright. Don't worry," said Nightshade using the wall to get up from the ground.

Mount Justice- March 20- 9:45 P.M-

The team arrived from a mission in the artic and found Red Tornado fixing Nightshade's bike, it was still damaged from the fight with Poison Ivy, plus some new dents. When they walked in, the girl was sitting on the ground reading a book while Red Tornado tried to fix the scratch the wall had caused. The team walked up to her, but she didn't hear them, she had her earbuds on and the music was so loud they could hear it from a few steps behind. Rocket walked up to the girl and kicked her lightly in the leg making her look at them, oddly enough they had gotten quite close lately.

"When did you get back?" she asked casually ignoring the kick. Nightshade hadn't been on this mission because, according to Batman, she was investigating something for him, something only Aqualad, Nightshade and him knew about. Batman had refused to tell Robin which made him suspicious since he already seemed to trust Nightshade a bit too much.

"Just now," answered Robin, "I see you got Red Tornado doing your dirty work," said Robin looking at the him.

"He offered to help, either way I've never been good with the mechanical stuff," she answered. Before he could say anything else, Aqualad made his way towards her and without looking at him the girl handed him a USB. "That's all there is," she said.

"Are you sure?" asked Aqualad raising an eyebrow. Nightshade stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him, her face told him she had felt insulted by that question.

"If you don't believe me you can check it out yourself, thought I don't think you'll find anything else since the computers might need to be replaced, along with the information," she told him and went back to reading her book. They knew what that meant, they all had a vague idea of what Nightshade could have done. Right then Wolf stepped out of Miss Martian's ship and the moment he laid eyes on Nightshade he started growling and showing his teeth. "What's with the mutated dog?" she asked stepping away from him.

"He's Wolf, he had never done this before," said Superboy trying to calm him down. Robin noticed how Nightshade had put her hand over her gun the moment Wolf had gotten close.

"His name is Wolf? How original," said the girl relaxing as Superboy moved him away from her.

"Are you afraid of Wolf, Nightshade?" asked Robin raising an eyebrow with a mocking smile across his face.

"Well, he is big enough to kill me with a single bite," she said glaring at him. The team took Wolf and let Nightshade get back to her book, but Superboy stayed behind and tried to read the title of the book she had in her hand. The girl noticed him staring and let out a small laugh. " _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde._ Though it might not be all that strange if you think about the world we live in," she said handing him the old book.

"What's it about?" he asked looking at the book cover that had two very different men in it. One of them was tall and distinguished, while the other was hunched over and had a rather disgruntled look on his face.

"You haven't read it? It's a classic," she said a little surprised, but then she remembered that he had been grown in a tube. Okay maybe that wasn't the best way to put it, she thought just as her phone went off. "Your birthday is tomorrow, huh?" she asked trying to avoid the awkward silence that had followed.

"Yeah, M'gann always throws a surprise party for me, but she doesn't know I know. Do you want to come?" he asked thinking it would be a good opportunity to bring Nightshade closer to the team, though the girl didn't look so convinced.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, they don't seem to like me much. I'll probably just ruin the mood, but if you feel like punching something I can give you an early birthday present," she said looking up from her phone to meet his gaze. Superboy looked in the direction the others had left and then he looked at Sphere who was sitting in the corner of the hangar.

"Sure, but we are taking Sphere," he said. Nightshade looked at the metallic ball that came rolling their way. She didn't quite understand until it turned into a large bike, "it's called the Super Cycle," he said proudly.

"Of course it is," she said rolling her eyes under the mask, "please tell me this thing goes by land," she said looking at Superboy who then shook his head slowly. Before Nightshade could protest, he picked her up and placed her in the passenger seat and took off so that she wouldn't be able to get out.

"Care to tell me where we're going?" he asked.

"Ri—right, I forgot to tell you. San Diego Mission Beach, looks like King Shark decided to step out of the water," she said just as Sphere started moving away from Mount Justice. "At this time I don't expect there to be a lot of people at the beach, but it would be better to keep King Shark away from the surrounding areas," she told him holding onto Sphere really tight. Superboy noticed and let out a small laugh, the way she clutched onto Sphere was turning her knuckles white. Her fear of heights was obvious, and he couldn't help but wonder where it had come from, or why it was so strong, but for now it was entertaining.

"I've been wondering; how do you always know when there's trouble?" he asked, "I mean, the Justice League knows because they have a giant satellite in orbit, but I don't think you have one," he said looking at back at the girl.

"I had a friend program my phone to receive any police communication anywhere in the globe. Of course it filters them by distance and level of importance. That's really all I understand, I spaced out when he was explaining how it worked," she told him. Honestly he was impressed, he didn't know Nightshade was so committed to the superhero thing, after all she didn't look, or acted like it. As they got closer to the San Diego beach, they could hear the people screaming. Superboy leaned over to look at the ground since Nightshade wouldn't, and saw that they were running away from King Shark as he got closer to the shops in the boardwalk.

Superboy lowered sphere to the ground and landed it between King Shark and a group of terrorized civilians. "Hello ugly," he said jumping off and punching him in the face. This hit sent King Shark back to the beach, and Superboy jumped towards him. Nightshade got off and followed Superboy further into the beach to see where he and King Shark had landed. They were in the middle of the beach hitting each other when Nightshade arrived.

"Is that all you have, Super Kid?" asked King Shark hitting Superboy in the face. After he was thrown away Nightshade stepped in and with her sword she managed to stab King Shark in the back.

"Not really," she said taking the sword out and letting the blood drip onto the sand. The girl got ready to attack again, she managed to land another hit just as King Shark grabbed her and tried to rip her head off with his mouth. She dodged him, and took out a knife, stabbing his hand forcing him to let go of her. Once she was on the ground King Shark threw a punch at her, but Superboy caught his fist before he could hit Nightshade and pushed him back. "I had him," she said.

"Of course," he answered moving closer to King Shark.

"I said I had him," said the girl picking up her sword and walking behind Superboy.

"I believe you," he told her waiting for King Shark to get up. He tried to attack them, but they moved out of the way before he could touch them. Superboy then attacked him from the right and Nightshade kicked him on the side of the head. King Shark fell to the ground right in front of them, but they waited a few seconds to make sure that he was actually knocked down. "So you had him, huh?" asked Superboy looking at Nightshade. The girl glared at him and started to walk away when King Shark grabbed her foot and threw her into the ocean, she fell into the water only to resurface a few seconds later to see Superboy being thrown her way. Nightshade sank back into the water to avoid Superboy and started swimming back to the shore without worrying about him.

"Should have brought Aqualad," she said looking back at a completely soaked Superboy; the good thing about that, was that both of them now looked furious. Nightshade took out her sword and charged at him at the same time that Superboy leaped towards King Shark. Superboy reached him first and managed to land a powerful punch across his face while Nightshade slashed him across the chest.

"Don't make me hate sharks as much as I hate monkeys!" said Superboy punching him a few more times. Both teens moved away from King Shark now almost certain that he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.

"You hate monkeys?" she asked raising an eyebrow. Superboy looked at Nightshade, she had blood splatters on her suit, but the girl didn't seem to mind, she looked rather used to it, he thought. The moment he lifted his gaze from her, he saw something approaching them in the distance so he tried to move Nightshade out of the way, but the girl still managed to get cut. It was a small cut in her arm, but it still made her wince.

The sharp piece of metal that had cut her, landed right next to Nightshade. They looked in the direction it had come from and saw a large monster, his body was covered in sharp pieces of metal, which he shot out once again, this time really aiming at them.

"Ugly brought a friend?" asked Superboy looking at the new villain that had appeared in front of them.

"What are these two doing together?" she asked dodging the pieces of metal.

"You know him?" he asked trying to get close to the monster.

"That's Shrapnel, a real pain in the ass. You can't cut him. I mean you can, but he just regenerates," she said using her sword to redirect the projectiles he was throwing out of his body. Superboy managed to get close enough to hit him, which made him stumble back a little. In that moment Nightshade stepped in and cut off his arm that slowly started to grow back. "See? He's annoying. At least we don't have to deal with him and the shark," she said.

Shrapnel Threw more pieces of glass at them that just bounced off Superboy, but cut Nightshade's suit. Superboy covered her and then moved her out of the way which allowed him to throw Shrapnel down on the ground. Immediately after that, King Shark got up from the ground and made his way towards the group. Growling, he grabbed Nightshade and dove into the water with her. The girl punched him and tried to swim to the surface, but he dragged her back down. Nightshade was trying to hold her breath just long enough to kick him away, and somehow, she managed to swim away from him. She later ran up to where Superboy was and moved him away from Shrapnel.

"Switch with me," she said pulling him back just in time for him to block an attack from King Shark.

"What the hell?" he asked right before King Shark grabbed him.

"I'll make it up to you if you're still alive," she said watching Superboy get thrown into the ocean by King Shark. "Sorry!" she yelled as King Shark dove in after him. Shrapnel took the chance to attack Nightshade, but she moved out of the way just before he could hit her. She got ready to attack, but instead, Sphere attacked Shrapnel from behind. "Good ball. I was starting to wonder if you did anything else. Go help Superboy while I deal with Shrapnel," said Nightshade.

The monster got back up and Nightshade waited for him to make the first move. He raised his arms to smash her, but she moved out of the way before he could hit her, she waited for him to be right next to her, and took out her gun. The girl found an opening and shot him. Shrapnel shrieked and fell to the ground where Nightshade took the chance to stab him in the head with her sword, but had to leave it there so that he wouldn't get back up.

"Great, there goes my favorite sword," she said.

Meanwhile, Superboy struggled with King Shark as he was being dragged deeper into the ocean. He tried punching him, but underwater King Shark was much faster than him. Superboy was running out of breath, but then Sphere showed up and started hitting King Shark. Sphere was followed by Nightshade who grabbed Superboy and swam with him back to the surface. The two of them looked at the ocean waiting for Sphere to emerge and when it finally did, they let out a sigh of relief, or at least Superboy did while Nightshade checked her phone again.

"Wow look at that, it's already past midnight. Happy birthday, Superboy" she said patting him in the back as she got up from the ground. After waiting for a while, Sphere got ready for takeoff causing Nightshade to have an uneasy look in her face. "Listen, I know it's your birthday and all, but is there any way to go back to the cave by land?" she asked looking at Sphere.

"Just get on," he told her lifting her up and placing her in the back seat of the Super Cycle.

Mount Justice- March 21- 4:40 P.M-

The next day Nightshade walked into the cave, she made her way towards the lounge where the team was supposed to be getting ready for the surprise party, but she found the place only half decorated. There were some paper lanterns in the ceiling and some still on the floor, an open pack of hanging swirls and some tape. They were still working on it and it seemed they had started late.

"Hey" said nightshade not really waiting for an answer which is why she was caught off guard when Rocket, Artemis and Kid Flash answered. Rocket even walked up to her. "how's it going?" she asked.

"Good, but we could use a hand," she said handing Nightshade a paper string. "I'll get you a ladder," she said and walked away. Nightshade quietly agreed and sat on top of the ladder sticking the strings and the balloons to the ceiling for a while until she received a call.

"Talk," she said balancing the phone on her shoulder while pressing it against her ear. Robin stopped what he was doing and started listening into her conversation. The voice on the other side sounded like a male's voice, but he couldn't quite make out what he was saying. "Now? Can't she do it? I'm kind of in the middle of something. Fine. Give me five" she said and slowly got off the ladder.

"You're leaving?" asked Robin looking up at her. The girl nodded and then walked up to Rocket and handed her a wrapped present. After she left, the team continued decorating the room for Superboy's party and managed to finish just before Miss Martian brought him back to the cave. As soon as they walked in the others greeted them with a cake and some presents. Superboy looked around, he was searching for Nightshade, but instead he found a present on the table. He took it and looked for a name, and when he didn't find one, Rocket walked up to him.

"Nightshade dropped it off in the afternoon. She left it in case she wouldn't be able to make it, guess it was a good call," said Rocket placing a hand on his shoulder, before walking back to the cake. Superboy smiled as he ripped the paper to see a copy of _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_ along with a note that read: 'In case you need another strange thing in your life.'

"Can we save a slice for Nightshade?" he asked walking towards them to make sure Kid Flash didn't finish it on his own.

Manhattan, New York City- March 21- 9:40 P.M-

Jade made it back into her apartment after stopping a robbery downtown. As soon as she opened the door she found Lance standing in the kitchen pouring some coffee into a mug.

"So you took Superboy with you, huh?" he asked before taking a sip.

"Yeah, I actually had fun for once," she answered while opening the fridge. "I was actually thinking of going to that surprise party, but I'm already late," she continued as she poured juice in a glass.

"Jade, I think you are losing the point of the mission. We need to get that USB back or its game over for the four of us," he reminded her. Jade set the glass on the counter without lifting her eyes to meet his. She knew what she was doing, she knew what would happen if she failed, she didn't need him to remind her of that. Lance walked up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. "I'm just worried about you, about us," he said, the girl lifted her face and stared back at him with her dark eyes that made him lean in, but just before their lips could touch the front door flung open forcing them apart.

A black-haired girl stepped into the room turning her head to look at the couple that had pulled away so fast they had ended up in awkward positions. Jade was facing the sink giving her back to Lance and he was trying to clean up the mess he had made after his elbow bumped a glass. "Do you need me to walk back out or something?" she asked, her green eyes landing on Jade who tensed up even more drawing out a smile from her lips.

"No. How was the mission, Camille?" she asked turning to face her.

"Easy, you know since you only let me have the kiddy missions while you handle the good ones," she answered erasing the smile from her own face, "where's Skye?"

"My sister almost blew up the communication system again, so I sent her to her room to calm down," answered Lance. As soon as she heard that, Jade made her way towards Skye's room that was right next to hers and knocked on the door a couple of time before Skye let her in. The other two watched her disappear into the room before Camille turned around to face Lance.

"So, what were you about to do?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"You know what I was about to do," he answered.

"You really need to get over your little crush, you more than anyone knows Jade is incapable of feeling anything like that for other people," she explained while pouring coffee into a clean mug. "After all, she was raised to be an emotionless killing machine," she reminded him.

"I know that, but lately she just seems different somehow," he said taking the mug away from Camille and taking a sip, "thanks, I dropped mine."


	5. Iceberg Lounge

Gotham City, Old Gotham City Museum- March 30- 11:13 P.M-

Water was flooding the place where Nightshade and Robin laid unconscious. The first one of them to wake up was Nightshade who felt some drops falling on her face. It took her a while before she could focus her eyes, and when she tried to move her hands she found them tied behind her back. The girl looked around to see an unconscious Robin with both hands tied behind his back as well. She tried getting up using the wall to support herself, but she slipped and fell on her back getting all wet, as she fell, Nightshade hit Robin with her foot waking him up.

"What the hell?" he asked shaking his head, the boy looked around and saw that water was coming in from the walls, and Nightshade was sitting up again. They helped each other up, and with the water now up to their knees the teens tried to untie each other with little success until Robin turned around and started patting Nightshade's belt to reach for one of the knives.

"Hey, watch where you're touching," she said.

"It wasn't on purpose," he said finally pulling out the knife. First, he released himself and then he cut the ropes around Nightshade's hands. Once free and with the water increasing in volume, the teens worried themselves with covering any place the water might be coming in, which resulted in an impossible task.

"Where are we?" asked Robin as he looked around, the place looked like a metal container, one of those that come in the ships with merchandise from abroad except this one was filled with holes and water was getting in, now soaked up to their elbows the two of them started to try and see if they could spot anything outside of the container but with the water coming in they soon gave up on the idea. "How was it that we got here again?" wondered Robin trying to remember what had happened to them before they woke up in the container, when he took too long Nightshade started talking.

"Penguin" she said, and just those words where enough to make him remember what had happened earlier that day.

Gotham City, Old Gotham City Museum- March 30- 8:45 P.M-

Batman and Robin, barged into the Penguin's lair in the old Gotham museum, Batman had heard that Penguin was shipping some illegal goods and he wanted to find out what it was and who was paying him. The two of them soon found out that The Penguin had the placed completely covered with guards and henchmen, most of them were armed with guns so it was too dangerous to just fight them head on. Instead, Batman disappeared into the shadows, and trying to follow him, Robin fired his grappling hook to one of the Gargoyles that were placed just underneath the balconies of the second floor. There he could see everything underneath him, anything except for Batman of course. Robin looked around, the room had six armed guards and two unarmed guards, they had fanned out around the room as if they were waiting for them to show up.

Robin was about to sneak up behind one of the armed guards when he saw that they had started falling down on the other side of the room. Sighing he landed just behind the guard he was targeting earlier and took him out by dislocating his arm, then he moved on towards another where he banged the thug's head against the rail and then another thug until the room was cleared. The two of them kept walking deeper into the museum taking down the guards they encountered, until they opened the door to the arms exhibition to find an immense group of henchmen ready to fight them. The Penguin made his way towards Batman and Robin a strong tall man dragging a tied up young man right behind him.

"I see you brought the kid with you," he said and smiled at Robin, his out of shaped and yellowish teeth showing, "Great, now I get to kill both of you," he said.

"Let him go!" said Batman moving closer to him, but Penguin raised a finger and pointed his umbrella at the hostage. Batman stopped halfway, but Penguin still shot him, killing him in an instant.

"Oh, there goes the father of two lovely kids. If you don't want that to happen to the rest of the scum I have in the back, you are going to leave!" he said slamming the handrail with his fists. Batman threw a batarang at him, but it was caught by his henchman who crushed it with his bare hand. "I knew you would come, so I prepared a bit of a party for you and Wonder Boy over there. I can't have you ruining this for me, they are paying me a lot of money for it," he said and the door closed behind him and the strong henchman that was now dragging a dead body. The moment they tried to move, the henchmen blocked their way and a fight broke out. Batman took out some batarangs and started throwing them at the henchmen making sure each one of them hit their target while Robin dealt with them in hand to hand combat.

"Robin, call for back up. Something tells me this is not the only thing Penguin has prepared for us," he said as he punched someone in the face and took out a Batarang and threw it at some other henchman making him fall to the ground. Batman was right, knowing the Penguin he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, so Robin started calling the team for back up.

" _ **Robin to the team, is there anyone available for backup?"**_ he asked kicking someone away from him, there was a moment of silence on the other side of the line before the one person he didn't want to hear from spoke.

" _ **I'm not doing anything important, where are you?"**_ asked Nightshade. Robin sighed heavily.

" _ **The old Gotham Museum, come…. fast,"**_ he said. Why of all people Nightshade had been the one not doing anything? He wondered as he dodged a kick and returned a punch. They had never really talked before, or fought side by side for that matter. He would have felt more comfortable with anyone but her. The henchmen seemed to have increased in number and now they were holding all sorts of weapons, a hammer, a bat, guns and knives. Both Batman and Robin started taking out the ones with the guns acknowledging them as more dangerous than the rest. The young boy put up a good fight until one of them hit Robin with a bat while another one was coming closer to him holding a knife in his hand when he was kneed in the face. Robin looked up to see Nightshade kicking people away from him allowing him to get up and keep fighting.

"Thanks," he said placing his back against hers.

"Sure thing Wonder Boy. By the way, how is it that the Dynamic Duo can't take care of a few henchmen?" she asked throwing one of her knives at them and punching another guy in the face. Robin fought silently for a few seconds before finally answering.

"Shut up," he said as he kicked someone in the face and moved on to the next one. Nightshade let out a small laugh as she did a round house kick, and then punched a thug in the stomach while simultaneously extending her leg to kick another one. Robin looked back at the girl, she was dealing with them just fine, but he spotted another henchman coming her way, so he took out a birdarang and aimed it at him. "Nightshade, duck!" he said. The girl did just as she was told allowing the birdarang to hit the guy that was coming from behind her.

Robin waited for her to thank him, but when he turned around to face her, he found that she had left and made her way towards Batman. Nightshade spotted a guy aiming at him so she took out her gun and shot him in the shoulder making him fall to the ground and drop the gun in the process.

"We don't use guns," he said, Nightshade shook her head and kept shooting people which was really decreasing the number of henchmen at a much faster pace.

"No, _you_ don't use guns," she said looking up at Batman who glared at her. "Fine, but this is going to take longer than necessary," she said putting the gun away. Thirty minutes later all of the henchmen where either on the floor or had run away from the fight, so now the three of them were free to walk into the next room that was the infamous Iceberg Lounge. There was a thick layer of ice on top of the cold water, and the temperature in the room was remarkably lower with snow laying around the room. On the other side of that room the Penguin was waiting probably convinced that Batman was still fighting the thugs, so all they had to do was cross the frozen water and get to the Penguin, Right? The ice looked rather unstable and it looked hard to walk in. Robin looked at Nightshade, she was playing around with the snow and trying to make figures with her breath until he nudged her in the side. Batman went down the stairs and stepped onto the ice, it cracked a little but it was able to hold his weight so the other two went down as well.

"Walk slowly, sudden movements will crack the ice faster," he said going ahead, the teens nodded and followed him. Once on the other side they walked into the central room of the Iceberg Lounge, and just as Penguin had said, he was holding more hostages, they were all standing in a container that was just above the water. The trio made their way to the container and just when they were about to start untying them more thugs came in through the door, Penguin in the front lines.

"Is that idiot asking for it?" said Nightshade as she walked closer. The Penguin took out a remote control and pushed the button once, which made the container move a little towards the water. The sudden movement caused the water to shake a bit and that was when they saw what looked like a shark fin peeking through the water.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said, the thugs had circled them, Batman was hesitating between going towards the hostages or the Penguin. Noticing this Robin tried to use a birdarang to hit Penguin's hand and knock off the remote but this only made the Penguin press the button once again and the container was now on the edge of the platform. Nightshade launched herself at the container with Robin right behind her, which allowed Batman to start fighting the thugs, but none of them noticed the smile that had formed in Penguin's lips. Just as the teens were taking the last one of the hostages out, this one turned on them and hit them in the back of the head, and with the help of the other hostages, the two of them were tied up. Penguin pressed the button once more and the door closed behind them and the container fell into the water which led to the situation they were in right when they woke up.

"So, there were no hostages. This was all an ambush," thought Robin out loud while Nightshade inspected the walls. There was no obvious way out and the water was now up to their chest, plus the container was the only thing keeping them safe from the shark. Robin inspected his utility belt, there were some bombs, a couple birdarangs, a laser and that was it, the rest of his things had gotten wet and now they were useless. Maybe if he could place a bomb on one of the walls it could give them enough space to leave or the blast could blow them both away, not to mention the shark. He then grabbed his laser and looked at it for a while thinking of a way to cut a hole through the wall. He started making small holes in the walls of the container with the laser, filling it up with more water.

"What are you doing!" yelled Nightshade, he stopped and turned around to look at her, the water now reached their chins and they were gasping for air in the small space between the water and the roof of the container.

"If you fill this up you can make a hole in the wall without having to worry about water coming in. That… or we just drown," explained Robin as they both took one last large breath and went under the water; Robin followed her down putting in his mouth a device that allowed him to breath under the water. He tried to look for another one, but he didn't have any left. Quickly Robin turned on his laser and started to make a hole through the wall big enough for the two of them to get out, but as soon as he did that, the shark rammed its head through the hole. Nightshade pulled him back by the collar and swam towards the shark that was trying to bite his way into the container.

The girl took out a knife and stabbed the shark in the face, making him back away and allowing them to swim out of the container. The teens swam towards the surface, but before they could make it, the shark came back and attacked Nightshade leaving a cut across her leg. She tried to fight it off, but started feeling dizzy from holding her breath for too long. Seeing that the shark was coming back and that Robin hadn't noticed, she pulled on his leg right before passing out. Robin turned around to see Nightshade sinking deeper into the water, he took off his breathing device and placed it on her just in time to move her away from the shark.

Robin then took out one of Nightshade's knives and used it to stab the shark right in the eye. He watched him sink into the water along with the knife. He turned to look at the unconscious Nightshade, and couldn't help but feel guilty. Robin swam back to the surface with her and stayed with the girl until she opened her eyes; the moment she did it he let out a sigh of relief. Nightshade rolled away from Robin and started coughing while sitting up on the floor. "Take it easy, you almost drowned," he said watching the girl coughing up the water that was left in her lungs. Nightshade placed her arm on the ground to help her get up, and felt a familiar sharp pain run up her leg. "Oh right, that also happened," he said talking about the wound. She looked at him to say something, but was interrupted by a loud noise coming from the fight. The teens then looked up to see that Penguin had little men left and that while Batman fought them, he started to sneak away.

"How about you go look for the merchandise while I deal with the midget?" she asked, and without waiting for an answer she clumsily ran towards the Penguin. Nightshade took out a knife and threw it at the wall right in front of the Penguin, forcing him to stop; she lifted him up by the collar so she could match his eye level. "Thanks to you I almost drowned for the second time in less than two weeks," she said looking directly into his eyes, The Penguin gulped but then looked behind her to see some of his men approaching.

"Well then Let's see if we can make that three times," he said just as Nightshade was hit with a pipe. Without letting go of The Penguin, she turned and kicked the thug right in the face, trying not to think about the pain in her leg. When another one came her way, she pushed The Penguin into the thug throwing them against the wall. Nightshade walked up to him and tied his hand to a pipe, she then took out her gun, aimed it at him and shot at the wall, just inches away from his face. The Penguin moved away startled and then his face changed from frightened to terrified when the girl turned around with the gun still in her hand.

"Try to run away and the next one is going through your skull. You see, unlike him I don't have much of a moral code," she said pointing at Batman and then turned around to fight the remaining thugs. Two thugs came her way, out of the corner of her eye she saw them and ran up to the first one, kicked him in the chest and used the impulse to take the other one out.

On the other side of the room, Batman was immobilizing all the thugs that came his way. He looked towards Nightshade, he knew he had seen that fighting style before, but he couldn't remember. His thoughts were interrupted by a thug trying to harm him with a broken bottle, but he grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his back forcing him to drop the bottle.

"Hey!" yelled Robin, "I think you should see what The Penguin was trying to sell," he said. Batman made his way towards him and looked into the crates; inside were bullets of different calibers. Batman picked one up and started to analyze it just as Nightshade got closer to the bullets. The girl took one out, but the moment she touched it, it burned through her gloves. Without making a fuzz, she dropped it gently into the crate and walked away from them while shaking her hand.

"They are uranium bullets, but there's not enough uranium in them to be radioactive. Who would want something like this?" asked Batman looking at the bullet and then his eyes wandered slightly towards Nightshade, he had seen what the bullet had done to her, but when he touched it nothing happened which made him wonder why it affected her and not them.

"Well, this was nice and everything, but I'm needed back in New York," she said turning around to walk out of the Iceberg Lounge, but Robin stopped her.

"Hey! Thanks for coming as quickly as you did… and sorry for almost letting you drown," he said. To their surprise the girl gave them a smile and waved as she walked towards the door.

"Anytime Wonder Brat. Batsy, see you around," she said before exiting the building. Batman grabbed Penguin and dragged him along to the Gotham City Police Department's roof where Gordon was already waiting for him.

"What about the hostages?" he asked Batman as one of the officers took Penguin with him.

"There were no hostages, it was a setup," he said. One of the officers walked up to them and whispered something in his ear.

"Batman, do you happen to know anyone by the name of Nightshade?" he asked. "She was seen earlier today in Gotham City, she didn't do anything wrong but I don't want more dangerous people coming to this city," he said.

"She was helping us with Penguin, but her usual base of operations is in New York City," answered Robin.

Gordon nodded and turned around to light a cigarette. "If you say so," answered Gordon not bothering to turn around knowing that they were already gone.


	6. The Other Team

New York City- April 19- 5:53 P.M-

Lance sat on the couch watching T.V when he heard a noise coming from one of the rooms at the end of the hall. He slowly got up from the couch and walked up to the door, without opening it, he stood outside and waited until he heard footsteps coming from inside the room. With a quick movement, he flung the door open and found Camille Brooks standing in the middle of the room taking off her shirt. It took him a while to realize who it was and what she was doing, but once he noticed, he didn't bother closing the door or turning around.

"Oh, it's only you," he said leaning against the door frame. Camille slid her shirt back on and moved towards him. "It's been a while, what were you doing?" he asked letting her through and following her to the kitchen.

"It's none of your business, Lance," she answered pulling her long wavy black hair in a ponytail. The girl opened the fridge and took out a milk carton and poured it into an empty glass.

"It is when Jade has to cover for your missions and still manage to work with the other team. Now, tell me, where were you?" he asked.

"Ugh fine, I was doing some research on The Light's whereabouts, it has been a while since they last showed their ugly faces," she answered. Camille hadn't been around for the past couple of weeks, which was not unusual, it just that she usually covered for Jade when she was busy and without her, Jade had to do more work. "Talking about that, I heard Jade saw Luthor," she said taking a big sip.

"Yeah, she saw him at S.T.A.R Labs. The bastard even taunted her," he said just as his phone started ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and read the small message Jade had sent him. "Well, now that you're here, why don't you go keep an eye on Black Mask, Jade said he spotted him in New York while she was headed for a mission with the team," he said putting the phone back in his pocket.

"Is that all I have to do? Keep an eye on Black Mask?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well, she did say she would take care of it once she is done, but if you can do anything…. then do it. Jade has done enough for the day," he said looking into her piercing green eyes. Camille smiled and poured the rest of the milk on the sink before running off into her room to change. Her suit looked a lot like Jade's, only that it was purple and black, instead of black and gray. She put on her mask and jumped out the window only to fly back up, leaving the building down on the ground. She flew all the way to the coast where she saw an old, seemingly unused warehouse that sat alone on the edge. Camille noticed the large trucks parked on the side, so she circled around the building looking for a window, she found one in the back of the building and peeked through. Inside she found large wooden boxes stacked up against the walls that where being taken away by Black Mask's goons who started filling the trucks with the boxes. Camille examined the room, she could fly in through the window, but she would have to sneak around and to be honest she wasn't very good at that, instead she decided to make an entrance and lowered herself to the ground where a bunch of goons where loading up one of the trucks.

"What you got there?" she asked standing behind one of them trying to look into the boxes. The goons stopped what they were doing and started shooting at her. Camille waved her hand in front of her and created an energy shield that blocked all the bullets. "You better have something else in mind, otherwise this will just be too easy," she said moving her hand making all the guns fly off. Seeing that, some of the goons got scared and ran away while others got their fists up. Camille raised an eyebrow and let out a laugh as she waved her hand one more time using her telekinesis to throw them all against the wall before using them as target practice for her blade constructs that were shot out of her fingertips. After clearing the surroundings and leaving a bloody mess outside of the warehouse, she moved quietly into the warehouse. She tried to stay in the shadows, levitating around avoiding Black Mask's gaze, she made her way towards one of the boxes and carefully opened it only to close it back down in disappointment.

" _ **It's guns, he is selling guns,"**_ she explained clearly disappointed with her findings, _**"a major Gotham mobster selling weapons…could he be anymore clichéd?"**_ she said talking into her comm. Lance listened in and chuckled at her exasperation, the girl was clearly expecting something more challenging and when the situation had failed to meet her expectations, she had started to lose interest.

" _ **Well now that we know, why don't you take them down so I can go back to doing something more interesting?"**_ he asked. Camille got ready to step out of the shadows when someone grabbed the back of her collar and threw her out into the middle of the room.

"You have really bad security, Black Mask," Said Bane as he stepped out from behind Camille. Black Mask stared down at the girl and then looked back up at Bane.

"Well that is why I'm paying you," he said and then turned his back on the girl. Bane took this as a sign to get rid of her and he extended his hand to grab Camille, but instead the girl used her powers to hit him in the head with one of the wooden boxes. With Bane down, Black Mask's goons gathered around her waiting for his orders. "You must be new at this. Usually the cops just turn a blind eye and in exchange I don't beat the crap out of them, but you superheroes are harder to break, so I just skip the negotiation," he started talking making his way towards the girl, and once he was close enough he gave a slight nod and all his goons launched themselves at Camille. The girl found herself surrounded, so she did the only thing she knew; she lifted a few boxes with her mind and threw them around the room.

While she was doing that, Bane got back up and threw a punch at her making her lose her concentration. Camille got up from the ground just in time to avoid a kick from Bane which he followed with a punch that broke the floor of the warehouse. Camille turned around to face him and extended her palm to release a wave of sharp, purple mental construction knives that forced Bane to step back. The girl then created a bigger mental construct in the form of a mallet and hit him with it, the blow pushed him to the ground where he was hit again and again until she was shot in the arm by Black Mask. Camille turned around to look at him and was about to attack him when a red blast hit him.

"Look at that, you lasted longer than I thought you would," said a male voice. Camille looked up to see Lance and Skye floating above her head. Lance Lowered his hand and stared down at Camille.

"I've been wearing this a lot lately and that's not something I'm comfortable with," said Skye lowering herself down to the ground right next to Camille. Camille clicked her tongue and turned away from them to face Black Mask. If they had come, then that meant that she wasn't doing as well as she thought and Lance had already thought he would have to intervene.

"A little piece of advice for the next one, try not to forget about the guy that calls the shots," said Lance just as Bane started to get back up again. "Or the monstrous guy that can rip you in half," he said facing Bane who looked rather angry now. Skye looked at Bane from behind Lance and quickly stepped forward with a smile on her face.

"Uh! He's so big. I bet he's bigger than Superman," she said looking at his muscles.

"He is," answered Bane cracking his knuckles and charging towards the group. Skye launched an electric wave that hit him, but wasn't strong enough to do any mayor damage or bring him down. Lance kept shooting energy beams, but he was dodging most of them and the ones that did hit him, only pushed him back a little. Camille, with her injured arm, could barely focus on her mental constructs making them weak and breakable with a single blow from Bane.

While the teens fought, Black mask took the chance to run away with a tuck full of merchandise. He made it out of the building and was about to pull up into the street when he heard a noise coming from the roof of the truck. He looked up to see a black-haired girl hanging upside down in front of him with a gun pointing at his face.

"Well, shit," he said as the girl descended and landed on the hood of the truck. "Nightshade. I should have known that little band of freaks was working for you," he said.

"Get out," she ordered him, but when he didn't move, she moved her gun slightly to her left and shot, making a hole right in the middle of the passenger's seat head rest. With that, Black Mask stepped out from the truck and along with him, a large group of his goons surrounded Nightshade. the man let out a loud sigh and put a hand on his pocket while he ran another one through his black skull mask.

"Look Nightshade, how about we make a deal. You get out my way and I don't kill you," he said pulling out a gun and aiming at the girl. His goons started closing in on the girl trying to keep her outside of the building.

"Sure, let me just get my team and we'll let you get back to it," she said lowering her hands and reaching down for a knife to throw it Black Mask hitting him in the shoulder. "As if that could happen," she said just before the goons threw themselves at her. Nightshade took them on one on one as they approached her; she grabbed one of them and pulled him to the ground before throwing a knife at his throat. Another one tried to hit her, but she pulled out her gun and shot him in the head. She did the same with another one that got a little bit too close, she pushed the gun into his mouth and without giving it a second thought she blew his brains out. Immediately after, a woman approached her from behind and Nightshade kicked her back into another goon and shot them both dead, and another one thought he could pull her down to the ground, but the girl ended up on top of him giving her the perfect position to cut his throat with little resistance. After finishing with them, Nightshade turned around to look for Black Mask only to find a bloody trail that led back to the warehouse.

"Sloppy," she said following the blood trace back into the warehouse. Inside Bane had grabbed Camille by the neck and was chocking her when a wave of fireballs forced him to let go. The team turned around to see Nightshade walking up to them, and she looked kind of mad.

"I thought you said you weren't using your powers anymore," said Camille in between coughs as she recovered. Nightshade ignored the remark and just glared at the girl.

"You should have called," she said crossing her arms over her chest.

"I didn't need you. Any of you," she answered scanning the siblings with her eyes.

"Oh please don't give me that, you clearly did!" said Nightshade opening her arms to point at the mess they had created in the short amount of time they had been inside the warehouse. "The instructions were clear, get in, observe and report back to me," she said reminding them what the original plan was. Before Camille or Lance could answer, Bane threw a crate at them forcing the group to split.

"Are you going to talk all day Nightshade? or are you going to fight?" asked Bane. It had taken him a while to recognize the black-haired girl as the one that a year and a half ago had broken into his place to steal some of his venom formula. "You never told me if that venom worked for you," he said with a smirk on his face. Nightshade started laughing as she recalled the incident.

"Right. I forgot you were here, Bane. If you really have to know, I threw up for three days straight," she said while more and more goons joined Bane. "Let's get this over with," she said as she pulled out her gun and shot one of the goons in the head without having to look marking the start of the fight. Bane tried to get close to Nightshade, but he was tackled by Red Shot. The two of them started fighting in the corner, while Camille, Skye and Nightshade took out the rest of the goons. They killed them all without giving it a second thought, Skye electrocuted a few of them, Camille used her powers to create sharp daggers that cut their throats, and Nightshade was shooting them down. She was distracted when Bane pushed her into the wall, after he had beaten Lance who was unconscious on the ground. Bane lifted her up by the collar and punched her in the stomach; it took her a while to recover, but when she managed to catch her breath again, she looked up at his face.

"You work with Black Mask now? I thought you people had an ethical code," she said kicking him across the face forcing Bane to let her go. Bane grabbed her and threw her to the other side of the room where Lance was just starting to regain consciousness. Nightshade was kneeling down beside him, using the wall to steady herself and wiping the blood from her mouth. "What are you down on the ground for? Look alive, Red Shot," she said getting up from the ground. The scene, those words and that name brought back memories to the first time they had met each other; during that time, the four of them were also involved in a fight and those same words had escaped Jade's mouth. He couldn't help but let out a small laugh as he found the strength to push himself back up and charge towards Bane.

"Go look for Black Mask," he said as he passed her by. Nightshade rushed out of the place while Lance kept Bane distracted. She tried to open the back door only to find it locked, so she tried the side door. After pushing it open she made her way to the back of the old warehouse, there she saw that Black Mask had taken off with a small boat full of weapons.

"Shit!" she said before punching the wall. She winced in pain and shook her hand until the pain went away; while she did that, Bane came flying through the wall and fell right in the water. Behind him, Lance, Camille and Skye walked out of the giant hole he had created in the wall.

"What happened?" asked Skye.

"Black Mask got away in a boat with part of the merchandise," she said glaring at Camille, "let's leave before Bane gets out of the water," she said.

"What do we do with the rest of the weapons?" asked Skye looking back at the warehouse, Nightshade stared down at her hands.

"It's been a while since I last used my powers, so I'm a little rusty but I bet I can manage," she said looking up from her hands before fire started coming out from them. She directed the fire towards the warehouse and after a few minutes, it started burning along with the guns and henchmen. Police sirens could be heard in the distance which was their cue to leave the scene; Lance took carried Nightshade and flew away with her, with Camille and Skye close behind.

Wayne Manor, Gotham City- 9:30 P.M-

"A fire broke out inside an abandoned warehouse in New York City. It seems that inside the warehouse, the Gotham mobster known as Black Mask was getting ready to send an illegal shipment. Since there is no trace of Black Mask, the police speculate that he caused the fire to cover his tracks, but officials are still looking into the matter. Additionally, some sources say that New York City's own vigilante was directly responsible for the fire. The vigilante know as Nightshade has a reputation for stopping criminals in violent and unconventional ways, some criminals have gone as far as to say that she's the antithesis of the Justice League. A statement that makes us wonder why would the city allow someone like that to operate there," After hearing that report, Bruce Wayne turned to look at Richard who had been staring intently at the screen along with Alfred.

"What an unusual character," said Alfred looking at Bruce. "So, she's the new member of the team?" he asked. Both Bruce and Richard nodded.

"In other, happier news, The University of New York just accepted one of their youngest students; fourteen-year-old Jade Collins will be attending the University next fall. The young girl that many have been calling a genius will be turning fifteen tomorrow. We would like to wish good luck to this remarkable young lady," said the newscaster before ending her report with the picture of a black haired, brown eyed girl.

Mount Justice- 11:54 P.M-

Nightshade returned to the cave to use the computer, she walked quietly through the halls, but when she passed by the souvenir room, one of the items on display caught her attention. It was the knife she had used to take down firefly, she examined the wall for a while before someone grabbed her from behind and pushed her down to the ground.

"Who are you?" asked the female voice, Nightshade struggled to get out of her grip, but every time she moved, the woman just pressed harder against her wrist. Since it was dark, she couldn't make out who it was until the person stretched her arm to turn on the light. Nightshade slowly turned to look over her shoulder to see Black Canary sitting on top of her. "Are you Nightshade?" she asked loosening her grip on the girl's arm.

"Yeah, now would you mind moving? I think you just broke my wrist," she said waiting for Black Canary to get up; she offered her hand to help her up and Nightshade took it.

"Sorry, I thought you were an intruder," she explained. "Now I know what all the fuss is about. When Batman said you were joining the team I wanted to greet you," she said stretching out her hand.

"Yeah well for future reference, tackling someone is never a good greeting," said Nightshade massaging her wrist.

"Oh yeah, Huntress did mention you were like that," she said, when Nightshade heard that name a shiver ran down her spine, "but she also said you had an unexpectedly nice side, when will I be able to see that?"

"Don't hold your breath, I'm just a bigger asshole on the inside," she said before walking out of the room.

"Noted. What are you doing here at this hour anyway?" asked Black Canary looking at Nightshade's back as they walked over to the computer. She activated it and started uploading some files to a folder that read 'The Light'.

"If you really must know, I needed to add somethings to this file and I don't think I'm going to have free time tomorrow. There, I don't think Batman can complain anymore," she said closing everything before turning around to face Black Canary, "if you see Huntress again tell her that I don't appreciate her going around telling people about me," she said.

"You sure can talk. You might want to tone down the attitude," she said crossing her arms over her chest. Nightshade let a smirk escape her lips. "You just added quite a few pages to our file, care to explain where you got that information?"

"I tend to piss off the wrong kind of people, this time they just happened to be a powerful organization set on world domination. You know the usual," she answered and walked out of the room towards the hangar. Black Canary stayed behind and turned on the computer again, she checked what Nightshade had added and found that it was mostly old information from before they found out about project C.A.D.M.U.S and some more recent activity that could be linked to them. After going through that, she typed Nightshade's name, her file was mostly empty all it had was her code name and the location she worked at, there was nothing else in the system. Absolutely nothing else.

"Who are you kid?" she asked out loud before turning off the computer.


	7. Orders

Jade found herself in an incredibly dark and damp room, she didn't remember how she had gotten there, but she felt as if she had been walking for a long time, and thought she couldn't see anything, she could feel something that could be a flashlight in her hand. She ran her hands through the metal cylinder until she felt something like a switch, turning it on she shinned a light on her surroundings. It looked like some kind of basement with dirty floor tiles and walls filled with dark red stains. Dry blood, she thought. After she made sure that there was no one else in there with her, Jade walked further into the room looking for a door or a way out. As she kept walking, the light of her flashlight illuminated the floor and she started to notice that the blood stains had gotten larger. Soon she spotted something that shone in the distance, Jade made her way towards it and the moment she saw it, she dropped the flashlight.

The thing she had seen from the distance turned out to be some metallic handcuffs attached to the wall, and the person that was strapped to them, was no one other than herself. Jade found herself staring back at her own putrid corpse, dry blood splattered all over the wall and the floor. Her body looked as if someone had ripped it open, her torso was split open but not in a neat way, it was more like something had burst right out of her chest. Jade picked up the flashlight that had fallen next to her scattered intestine, but the moment she stood up straight, she heard a familiar voice calling her.

"There you are Jade," the low-pitch, female voice said accompanied by the distinct sound of a metal door being slammed shut. Jade tried to move away from the voice when she felt something clasp against her wrist. "Don't run away, I just want to talk," she said. Jade turned to see that her wrist was bound by a metal handcuff, and though the chain was long it limited her movement. As she tried to rip the handcuff off, she heard footsteps slowly making their way towards her. Desperation grew on her face, her sweaty hands slipping every time she tried to pull the chain while the footsteps just got closer and closer.

"Is this how you kill time?" she asked, it was ridiculous to think that she could be sarcastic even in this sort of situation, though her voice broke when she got a cut on her hand from the cuffs.

"Charming," she answered. The footsteps came to a sudden stop, and Jade could feel her presence a few feet away from her. "Aren't you tired? I think it's time you take a break," Jade felt a shiver run up her spine when she saw a long streak of dark red hair fall next to her face. "Let me come out and play!" she said just as she ran a sword through Jade's chest, which caused her mouth to fill with blood and her eyes to roll to the back of her head.

Jade woke up startled, gasping for air, sweat dripping down her face. She buried her face in her shaking hands and tried to regain her composure, but it proved useless. Jade simply sat on her bed, staring blankly at the dark red wall until the lightning outside snapped her out of her thoughts. "Ugh. Not now, any other time would have been fine, but nooo she can't wait," she said while getting out of bed. I really should work on how I use sarcasm, she thought.

New York City- April 20- 10:34 A.M-

Jade opened the door to her room, despite the loud storm outside her window, she was hoping for a quiet day. Too bad she lived with Skye, because the moment she opened her door, she saw the brunette wearing a party hat, while holding a cake and a small present on the other hand. Jade knew what was coming, an out of tune birthday song followed by cake for breakfast. The same thing happened last year, except it had been a couple of weeks after her actual birthday because they didn't know about it.

"—Happy birthday to you!" finished Skye while a now fifteen-year-old Jade gave her an empty stare. Skye ignored the look and led her towards the living room where Camille had just finished putting up a banner that read 'Happy birthday Jade'.

"Hey, the birthday girl is up!" said Camille while moving away from the banner. "You know, you don't look fifteen," she said while putting her arm around her shoulders. That was actually true, out of the four of them, Jade looked even younger. With Camille and Skye being sixteen and Lance having just turned seventeen, the girl was definitely the youngest one, but her height made her look at least a year younger.

"I get that a lot," she said moving away from Camille only to be caught in Skye's embrace. Usually she would have pushed her away by now, but this was an especial occasion so Jade gave her a few more seconds before finally pushing her away.

"Okay I got someone to buy beer and vodka for me, so we are getting drunk tonight!" said Lance as he walked into the apartment. His eyes laid on Jade who was listening to what Skye was excitedly telling her about, and while the girl was distracted, he gave her a kiss on the cheek "Happy Birthday," he said before leaving to put the booze in the fridge. Camille raised an eyebrow following him with her eyes until he buried his face in the fridge.

Jade seemed unshaken at first, but then her cheeks started getting a light red color; she felt how hot they had gotten so she turned away from them and took a few deep breaths before being able to stare at any of them again. Both Camille and Skye noticed and let a small smile escape their lips while they pretended they hadn't seen anything. Lance closed the fridge and made his way towards Jade and handed her a tiny jewelry box with a silver necklace inside.

"I was going to give it to you later, but you're prone to running off," he said before taking the necklace out and putting it around her neck. His cold hands made her shiver when they touched the back of her neck, but the moment was suddenly interrupted by Jade's phone vibrating in her pocket. "See what I mean?" he said.

"Mayor Hall?" asked Skye.

"No," she said putting her phone in her pocket, "I have to go. Thank you," she said and stood on her tips to give Lance a peck on the cheek before she rushed into her room to get changed.

Washington D.C- 11:05 A.M-

Aqualad stepped into the vault as the guard closed the door behind him. The darkened room lit up revealing long lines of cardboard boxes with labels on top. Aqualad made his way towards the back, his steps resounding in the otherwise empty room. Batman had sent him to keep an eye on some blueprints for a weapon that was in a science center in Washington, he believed they were the Light's next target. Ever since Nightshade had spotted Luthor at S.T.A.R Labs, both he and Nightshade had been going on missions to trace the connections between the stoles items or kidnapped people. Though they had been doing it separately in an effort to cover more ground and try to stop them from getting their hands on whatever it was they were after.

Aqualad heard a noise coming from his right forcing him to stop, he turned his head to take a look while keeping a hand on his water bearers. After he didn't see anything, he took a few more steps until an out of place box caught his eye. The box was sloppily placed on top of a pile, as if it had been moved recently. He walked up to the box that was labeled 'Project Nightfall', he reached out to open the box and found a bunch of files and a smaller black box inside, but just as he was about to open one of the files he was startled by Nightshade's voice.

"Water boy," she said showing up behind him. Aqualad moved away from the box allowing Nightshade to glance at it. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to look at her. To be honest she didn't want to be there, the place had an awful smell and dust was constantly getting in her eyes, but Batman thought it was a good idea to send her with Aqualad. Though by the looks of it, he hadn't told Aqualad that she would be going.

"When did you get here?" he asked.

"A few minutes ago, it was surprisingly easy, their security system is garbage," she said walking past him and towards the blueprints that laid alone in the middle of the room. They were enclosed in a crystal box that allowed them to look at the prints, they looked incredibly common. A normal gun at first glance, but after looking a little closer, it had different dimensions and different components and materials. Those were the blueprints for a nearly indestructible ray gun with immense power. Aqualad looked at Nightshade as she checked out the ray gun; the truth was that even though it was partly his idea to invite Nightshade into the team, Aqualad did not feel all that comfortable around her. Not even after Superboy, Rocket, Artemis and Kid Flash had tried to convince him otherwise.

The two of them stayed silent for a while until that silence was interrupted by a loud bang coming from the front of the room. It was an old place, unusual sounds where not that unusual, but still Aqualad had tensed up and placed his hand on his water-bearer. Nightshade sighed and walked towards the source of the sound, one of the boxes had fallen over.

"Learn to relax a little, you're too serious all the time," she said after dismissing the noise as the wind knocking over one of the boxes.

"You are the one that should start taking things seriously. There are certain things that you cannot just ignore and hope they go away," he told her. To him, Nightshade was the type of person that didn't deal with things; he had seen it before with Copy Cat, or when Black Canary asked too many questions. Nightshade glared at him while getting closer, she poked his chest and pushed him back a few inches.

"Listen here buddy don't pretend you know anything about me, and I do take things seriously," she said moving away from Aqualad. He heard her mumbling something to herself as she walked backed to her spot, making sure the glass box stood between them.

"I could say the same thing," said Aqualad looking at Nightshade. The girl met his gaze and flashed him a mocking smile. "You say we do not know you, but as far as we are concerned, you do not seem all that interested in getting to know us," he continued.

"How about we just guard this stupid thing in silence," she answered. Aqualad knew he had struck a nerve there, otherwise she would have just laughed it off the way she had many times before.

The two of them stayed silent for the next hour until Nightshade started wandering off into the archives. Aqualad watched her stop in front of a box, but before she could open it he interrupted. "I thought you said you were going to take this seriously," he reminded her.

"No, I said I take things seriously, just not this," she answered opening the box and looking into it. Aqualad remembered that was the Project Nightfall box he had seen earlier. "Anyway, it's almost midnight, isn't it time for us to leave and take this to the Justice League?" she asked. Aqualad didn't answer, he had stopped listening after he heard another loud noise coming from the other side of the room.

"Shut up for a second," he said trying to find the source of the noise.

"Oh so now you want to be quiet," said Nightshade, "where was that attitude a few hours ago?" she asked forgetting entirely about the box she was looking at.

"Nightshade, shut up!" he repeated, this time raising his voice which was met with unsettling silence. They stayed silent for a few seconds when the shelf behind Nightshade fell over, she managed to hold the metallic structure over her head avoiding the falling boxes.

"That was close," she said struggling to push the shelf back in its place when Cheetah tackled her allowing the shelf to fall to the ground. Both of them fought on the floor, Cheetah tried to scratch Nightshade while she kept her away with one arm. She used her free arm to reach down for her gun, she then pulled it out and hit Cheetah on the side of the head with the grip and then knocked her over with her leg. Before Cheetah could get up, Aqualad grabbed her and threw her to the other side of the room, but instead of hitting the wall, she used her legs to launch herself towards them. The two of them saw her coming and split up avoiding Cheetah.

"Nice reflexes," she said standing up from the ground. "Look kids, I don't know who you are, but if you get in my way I'm not going to play nice," she said in a distinctive cat like voice. Nightshade and Aqualad looked at each other and nodded.

"Good, neither are we," said Aqualad taking out his water-bearers, while Nightshade prepared her gun. Cheetah smiled and launched herself at them, she tried to kick Aqualad at first, but he blocked her hit with a shield and pushed her back. Cheetah then tried to bring him to the ground, but Nightshade shot her way getting her attention. The animal-like woman got off Aqualad and directed her attention at Nightshade, she wrapped her long tail around her arm and pulled her close, but Nightshade used the impulse to land a kick to her face. Aqualad approached them, and without letting go of Nightshade, Cheetah tried to scratch him but he moved away from her.

Nightshade pulled her hand back pulling Cheetah's tail at the same time. The feline woman kicked Nightshade into the wall and jumped at Aqualad pinning him down to the ground. Aqualad struggled to get out while dodging her scratches until he saw one that he couldn't dodge and formed a shield with his water bearer, but Cheetah's claws were so strong that they slashed through the shield and into his chest. Though it was a superficial cut, the wound still bled quite a lot. Aqualad finally managed to push her off him in time for Nightshade to throw one of the boxes at her.

"I may have underestimated you," said Cheetah as she slowly got up from the ground. The woman looked around the room, the two teens were up and ready to fight and that was when she caught a scent coming from Aqualad and Nightshade. Actually there were more than two smells, a third one was there, a bit camouflaged, but it was still there. Cheetah tried to identify the source, but it kept leading her to Nightshade and Aqualad, but since they were standing so close together she couldn't tell which one belonged to whom. Her eyes landed on the fuse box that was behind the two teenagers and with a quick move she managed to slash the fuse box. "Let's make this a little more interesting," she said as they were all enveloped in darkness.

Both Nightshade and Aqualad were surrounded by the darkness and since they couldn't see where Cheetah was, they were on constant alert. At this point the only thing they knew was that they were standing next to each other. "Don't move too far away from me," said Aqualad grabbing her shoulder.

"That might be easier said than done," she told him taking out a flare and lighting it up just as Cheetah tackled Aqualad who took Nightshade with him. As the two of them struggled, Nightshade moved away from them trying to find a now extinguished flare. The girl was now on her hands and knees looking for it while still listening to Aqualad and Cheetah fight. Cheetah sniffed Aqualad as she was fighting him.

"It's not you," she said after identifying just a single, kind of fish like smell, Cheetah tried to get up, but Aqualad pulled her back down.

"Where you sent by the Light?" he asked.

"I don't discuss business with little brats," she said and scratched him forcing him to let her go. Cheetah launched herself at Nightshade who was still looking for the flare and pushed her down.

"It was you. You smell different,"

"I don't know it that's a compliment or not," she said pushing Cheetah away.

"No, there are two smells coming from you. I—I smell the scent of death in you. Actually, you reek of death and…fire. Why?" asked Cheetah. While she was distracted, Nightshade took the chance and pushed her away and back into the wall. Cheetah tried to move away from Nightshade, but she stuck a knife to the wall right next to Cheetah's face.

"You don't want to find out," she said just before Aqualad pushed Cheetah away from the wall and cuffed her hands behind her back. "Look at that, who would have thought we would make a good team?" she said finally finding the flare she had dropped. Aqualad gave her a small look as he finished restraining Cheetah, and then walked over to check if the blueprints were still there. Nighashade handed him the flare so he could examine it thoroughly while she looked around the room once more.

"Well, it looks like the real one is still here. I will call Batman and let him know," he said lifting up his gaze from the glass display only to find himself alone in that part of the room, he figured Nightshade had just decided to take another look around. His eyes suddenly landed on the messy boxes and he remembered the 'Project Nightfall' box, he decided to take a better look at it only to find that it was gone. Since they had captured Cheetah and no one else had come into the room, the only other person that could have taken the box was… "Nightshade?" he asked going around the room before walking back to where Cheetah was still handcuffed.

"She left, kid," said Cheetah.

"Did she have a box with her?" he asked looking down at the woman sitting on the floor.

"Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. What do I get for helping you?" she answered in a soft, seductive voice.

"I don't rough you up as much as I should when I take you to prison," he answered.

"You're not fun," replied Cheetah blowing a piece of hair away from her face.

Metropolis' Central Cemetery- April 21- 2:40 A.M-

Jade walked up to the mausoleum in silence, a bouquet of flowers under her arm and her hands stuffed in her coat pockets. The cold morning wind brushed her hair away from her face as she made her way towards her family's grave. When she got there, she saw another bouquet of flowers placed in front of the door with a note buried between them. Jade leaned down and picked up the bouquet before leaving hers. She carefully pulled out the card and as she read it, her eyes widened. Jade returned the bouquet to the ground after she put the card in her pocket, and stared at the mausoleum. With her hands in her pockets, she felt the card, her fingers ran through it and the engraved symbol she had come to know all too well: 'Lexcorp'. She knew exactly why he had done that, he was taunting her, he wanted her to know he was still watching.

"You're not going in?" asked a voice coming from behind her. Jade turned around to see a tall black haired woman with piercing blue eyes making her way towards her. Helena Bertinelli. Jade let out a small laugh and followed Helena with her eyes until she was standing right next to her. "You were late this year," she said.

"I had something I couldn't get out of," answered Jade.

"He called. Somehow he found out we worked together a few times," said Helena putting her hands inside her pockets and turning to look at Jade. "Of course I told him I didn't know much, but he didn't sound all that convinced," she said.

"Why am I not surprised?" said Jade, "Next time tell Batman that if he wants to know anything he can just ask. I won't tell him anything, but he can ask," she said and started to walk away from the mausoleum.

"Jade! Happy Birthday!" she yelled after her. Jade simply waved and resumed her walk as Helena watched her until she could no longer see her, and then took off on the opposite direction.


	8. Blood Ties Pt I

Mount Justice- May 25- 11:34 P.M-

Black Canary Walked into the lounge room to see Superboy and Miss Martian arguing loudly in the middle of the room, lately their relationship had started to fall apart after Miss Martian had read Superboy's mind. To her surprise, Black Canary found Nightshade leaning against the counter with a bowl of chips and a drink next to her. She was chewing while she watched the argument as if she was watching some sort of movie and it looked like she had been there for a while since the bowl was almost finished.

"Have you seriously been watching them the whole time and didn't bother to break up the fight?" Asked Black Canary, whispering as she stood next to Nightshade.

"Why would I stop it? This is amazing," she answered putting another chip in her mouth and moving the bowl away from Black Canary. "I would offer you some, but as you can see there's not much left," she said.

"You're a terrible person," said Black Canary before she walked away from the kitchen and towards the feuding couple.

"I do what I can," Nightshade shrugged before directing her attention back to her chips. In that moment, Aqualad walked in, his face twisted in a frown, he ignored Miss Martian and Superboy while they were being separated by Black Canary and directed his attention to Nightshade.

"You took the box. Why?" asked Aqualad.

"Morning," she said.

"Answer the question," he ordered, "what is project Nightfall?"

"That wasn't the original question," she said.

"How can you say that!" the two of them heard an angry Miss Martian say. The Martian then spotted the glass resting on the counter and with her powers she had the drink fly all the way towards Superboy, but it missed its target and ended up hitting Black Canary instead.

"Oh this just got so much better," she Nightshade placing her chin over her palms. An angry Black Canary released a canary cry that sent Superboy and Miss Martian to the other side of the room, pushed Aqualad and Nightshade back, and got the attention of the rest of the team that had scattered through the cave as soon as the argument started. "Ugh, my ears are ringing," said Nightshade letting go of Aqualad who had caught her before she could hit the ground.

"Enough! I'm going to get cleaned up, and when I come back I want to see you two standing as far away as possible form each other," she said looking at Superboy and Miss Martian, "and I want you two to tell me what you know about Nightfall," she ordered and all the four of them could do was nod. After Black Canary left, Nightshade saw something move out of the corner of her eye, she walked away from the group to follow the shadow only to find nothing once she turned the corner. She looked around a bit more before she heard Black Canary calling them from the mission room.

When they got there, she opened a file with the name Nightfall; the file was incredibly small containing only her code name and some vague information about her and a picture file that Black Canary didn't open.

"Right now this is all the information we have on Nightfall. We used to have a larger file, but one day our system was hacked and her information was lost; not only from our system, but Batman also lost this file," she explained looking at Robin who nodded.

"Why only that one?" asked Artemis.

"We lost several files. The problem was that we could recover all of the other information, except for the one we had on Nightfall," she explained. "This leads us to believe that she was the one that hacked into our data base."

"Okay, but who exactly is she?" asked Kid Flash, but before anyone could answer, Aqualad interrupted with another question.

"And what was in the box you took?" he asked looking back at Nightshade. The girl looked at Black Canary to see if she wanted to keep talking, but the woman allowed her to answer a question she obviously wanted to avoid.

"Nightfall is… was a criminal I had been following for a while. She was wanted for robbery, arson, kidnapping, and murder among others; it's an extensive list. Either way, a few years ago she disappeared as fast as she showed up; that box is my only lead on her current whereabouts," she explained. "Though her disappearance is good news for all of us, she is not someone you can mess with and expect to walk away intact. You know that, right?" she asked looking at Black Canary. The woman stared at Nightshade, she could have sworn she saw the corners of her mouth curl up a little as she was speaking. The team turned their gaze towards Black Canary who pulled up a video that was in Nightfall's file.

"I met her some years ago, Steel and I had just busted a robbery next to the pier in Metropolis when Nightfall attacked us. We were cuffing up the robbers when something pulled on my leg so strongly that it dragged me all the way towards a darkened spot in the pier. When I looked down at my foot to see what was pulling me, I saw something that looked like black mist wrapped around my ankle. Before I could reach the shadowy spot, I used my canary cry to weaken the mist forcing it to let go of my foot. Steel quickly caught up with me and we both stared at the dark corner that seemed to suck away all the light coming from the street lamps. We waited to see if anything would come out to of it, but we were surprised to see the shadows disperse and a small masked girl with red-blood colored hair that reached up to her waist appeared in their place. She looked human enough, but her powers were not something I had seen before," explained Black Canary as the security footage kept going.

"Wait, Steel? As in Commander Steel?" asked Robin. "I thought he died a few years ago,"

"He did. Nightfall killed him, along with Fire, Ice and she left Big Barda gravely injured," explained Black Canary. The group turned their attention to the screen, it showed Steel surrounded by shadows that pinned him down on the ground and started pulling on his limbs; they exchanged some words that the camera couldn't pick up and then Steel tore his own leg off. Black Canary cut the video and then opened a pixelated picture with what the team assumed was Nightfall's face, her long red hair fell on her face and her eyes were covered by a black mask just like Black Canary had described her, but she was just a kid, just around eleven. Black Canary finished her story while giving them a blank stare, they all knew that in her mind she was recreating the whole thing as she spoke, every little detail of that night was running through her mind like a movie.

The woman sighed heavily and shook her head. "Ever since that day, the Justice League has been looking for Nightfall, but as Nightshade said, she vanished," Black Canary looked at the team, but her eyes soon found their way to Nightshade who was looking away from the picture. The moment she had seen her for the first time, Black Canary thought that she was similar to Nightfall, not only the name, but the general atmosphere around the two of them was quite unique. Her thoughts where interrupted when Nightshade started talking.

"For Nightfall killing was some kind of sick hobby. She liked watching her victims suffer, whether they were heroes or criminals, Nightfall didn't seem to make any sort of discrimination, she even kept trophies," she said.

"You never tried to stop her?" Zatanna asked what was on everyone else's mind.

"I don't fight battles I can't win," she answered looking down at her phone after it vibrated in her pocket. "If you really want to see what was on that box, meet me in New York in an hour," she said walking away from them. Aqualad and Black Canary looked at each other. Somehow, they knew that wasn't the whole story, there had to be more to it; enough to make Nightshade want to take that box.

Manhattan, New York City- 2:30 P.M-

Jade walked into her apartment releasing a heavy sigh. "Are you really going to give them the box?" asked Lance startling the girl since she hadn't seen him when she came in even though the siblings were eating in the kitchen right next to the door. "Nice fake story by the way," he said getting up from his chair. Jade glared at him as she leaned down to grab the carton box that was sitting in the corner of the room.

"Of course I'm not going to give them everything," she said placing it on the counter before opening it. The box was full of files, pictures and things connected to Nightfall and Project Nightfall. "Help me pick out the things I can give them," she ordered the siblings who started reading everything.

"Oh you don't want them to have this," said Lance after opening the biggest file, he put it in another box Skye had taken out, the trio started selecting what to put back in the box, they threw in the blurry, low quality pictures, all of the files that didn't give much detail and instead they kept the things that actually said something important in the other box. Half an hour later, they were done with the files, so Jade put on her suit and got ready to leave with the box when Skye stopped her.

"Jade, don't you think it would be a good idea to tell them what really happened?" she asked, "maybe they can help us," she said.

"Or they just throw us in jail for the rest of our lives," said Jade. After Skye didn't answer, she just took off with the box.

New York City- 3:40 P.M-

Aqualad, Black Canary and Robin waited for Nightshade in the alley she had told them, she was late but they didn't expect her to be on time; actually they were ready to wait a little bit longer when they heard a loud Thud. When they turned around, they saw the battered box right next to them. Aqualad looked up to see Nightshade staring down at them, she landed in front of them and pushed the box towards them with her foot.

"Here you go, it doesn't have any interesting information," she said. Aqualad and Black Canary leaned down to look into the box, everything seemed to be in order. "Anyway, I gave it to you. Have fun doing whatever it is that you're going to do with that," she said turning her back on them.

"Nightshade, wait!" said Black Canary, "you know something else right? Something else happened with Nightfall," she insisted. The girl did stop for a few seconds, she thought about what Skye had said, but kept walking deeper into the alley until the shadows covered her.

"It's like talking to a wall" Robin pointed out before the group grabbed the box and took off to the cave.

Gotham City- May 28- 9:34 P.M-

Artemis had just finished patrolling with Green Arrow through Star City and was now going back home, she had just ditched her suit and was wearing civilian clothes. Even though the weather had gotten warmer, the night was still cold so she pushed her hands into her pockets and kept walking down the street watching her breath turn white. Artemis was so distracted she didn't notice when someone grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into an alley. Her back hit the wall and it took her a few seconds to recognize that person as no one other than her sister.

"It's been a while sis," said Cheshire pulling off her mask, and pushing her knife on Artemis' throat.

"Not long enough," she said pushing her sister's arm away from her and fixing her clothes, "what do you want now? Didn't have enough when we kicked your ass the last time?" she said. The sound of footsteps got her attention and when she turned, she saw Sportsmaster coming out from the shadows.

"Relax baby girl, we are not here to harm you, we are here to ask for a favor," he explained. "It has something to do with your new teammate,"

"As if I'll help you with anything," she glared at them and tried to walk past only to be stopped by Cheshire. Angered, Artemis kicked her away and got in fighting position.

"Seriously kid, why don't you do your father a favor and find out where that girl is keeping some files?" asked Sportsmaster, Artemis threw a punch at him but he grabbed it before it hit his mask. "You'll regret it if you don't," he said. From one of the rooftops, they heard a metallic sound that forced him to look up. After he did, he let go of her hand and started walking away from her, Cheshire looked up at the rooftop and followed her father.

"What? That's it?" asked Artemis watching them walk away.

"Don't worry Baby girl, we'll be back when you have less company," said Sportsmaster. After the two of them left, Artemis leaned back against one of the walls, she slowly slid down and sat on the ground bringing her hands to her face. She looked up when she heard a loud thud followed by footsteps; Nightshade was standing there looking in the direction Sportsmaster and Cheshire had left, she still had her headphones on and the music was so loud even Artemis could hear it. Artemis figured that was just something Nightshade did when she was alone.

"Now that was emotionally exhausting," she said looking at Artemis and extending her hand to help her up, Artemis took it and dust herself off. "Just so you know I'm not talking about your family problems, I was talking about standing on that roof for so long. I think I'll stick to the ground from now on," she said putting her hands back in her pockets.

"How long have you been here?" she asked, Nightshade took out one earbuds before answering.

"Long enough, I thought it would be rude to interfere," she said.

"So you heard everything," said Artemis looking at Nightshade, "What was my father talking about?" she asked talking about the files. The girl stared down at Nightshade, though the height difference made it easier to do so. Nightshade ran a hand through her hair and let out a long sigh.

"It's nothing you should worry about," she said, "either way, why don't you go deal with your own issues before meddling into mine. Dysfunctional family…so clichéd," she said. Artemis was already on edge so when Nightshade provoked her she snapped and punched her across the face. Nightshade took the punch and then returned it by punching her in the stomach.

"Don't take your anger out on me. Seriously, I can see why he would rather work with your sister," she whispered in Artemis' ear as she curled up gasping for air. By the time Artemis looked up Nightshade was gone, so she walked out of the alley and went straight home. Once there, she found that her mother was already in bed sleeping and so she went straight into her room. Artemis sat on her bed and leaned back against the wall; she thought about what Sportsmaster had said and suddenly the files Aqualad had mentioned a while ago came to mind.

Was it related to Nightfall? And why would the Light want something to do with Nightfall? She wondered, a lot of questions danced around her head, but for now there was a bigger question she couldn't shake off: What was Nightshade's connection to all of this? Artemis sighed just as sleep was starting to set in and without noticing, she fell asleep with her back against the wall.

Mount Justice- June 4- 3:45 P.M-

Miss Martian and Superboy were still not in very good terms, but at least they were talking to each other now. Though they were taking it slow, Miss Martian had decided to go to the training room with Black Canary and Superboy chose to stay in the lounge room with Kid Flash and Zatanna.

"Seriously, you two need to talk to each other. It's been a month since that happened," said Zatanna walking up to them with glasses of freshly made juice. Lately the atmosphere of the cave had been so awkward that she spent most of her time in her room until someone else would show up and they could share the awkwardness together. She hadn't feel so uncomfortable since she and Robin had stopped going out.

"We already talked," he said taking a large sip of his beverage.

"Yelling at each other and then pretend it didn't happen doesn't count as talking," said Zatanna. Superboy looked over at Kid Flash for help, but he just chugged down his drink and sided with Zatanna.

"You're right," he sighed, "I just don't know what to tell her,"

"What are you talking about?" asked Artemis who had just stepped in with Rocket. She wrapped her arms around Kid Flash and greeted him with a small kiss on the lips. But before anyone could tell her, Aqualad, Batman and Robin walked past them.

"Gather in the mission room. Now," said Batman disappearing into the hall. The team was gathered around Batman as he was briefing them on a mission involving Sportsmaster and Cheshire. Apparently, they were looking for an old artifact that allowed the person that possessed it to enhance their powers and abilities, the League believed they were going to give it to The Light, and that they would use it to increase their respective powers in hopes of bringing down the Justice League. "This is why we need you to go after them and stop them from giving that artifact to The Light, this matter has become a priority and so you will be responding to me. Any information you have; you communicate it to me. Don't do anything without my approval, this falls in the wrong hands and—" he started but was cut off by Nightshade walking in.

"It could have devastating consequences, we know Batsy," she said walking up to the team, Wolf started growling at her as soon as he saw her. "Not today, you big ball of fur."

"You are late," he said while glaring at the girl, he then looked at Aqualad. "I'll let you two take it from here," he said and stepped aside. The team looked at Aqualad and Nightshade as they stepped up and faced them looking unusually serious, well at least that was true for Nightshade.

"For the past few months, Nightshade and I have been investigating a series of disappearances and stolen items that we believe could be linked to the Light. It started with the S.T.A.R Labs attack where Nightshade spotted Lex Luthor taking something from the underground facilities," he explained, but most of the team was wondering why Batman had trusted Nightshade, a newcomer and a rather unreliable member, with such an important mission. "This is the first time they are doing it so openly, which is why we are suspicious. According to Red Arrow, they will be in Athens next week, which gives us some time to prepare for them," explained Aqualad.

"You spoke with Roy? Is he coming with us?" asked Kid Flash, he was excited at the idea of seeing his estranged friend once again. After the incident with the Justice League, Roy had cut off all ties with the heroes and moved to Washington to look for the real Roy Harper. Worried, Nightshade and Aqualad looked at each other before answering.

"He spoke to Wonder Woman. He found Cheshire and Sportsmaster while he was looking for Roy," said Aqualad. "And no, he said he does not want anything to do with the team. In fact, he said he has a plan to stop them by himself," he told them. Robin looked at Nightshade, she had been awfully quiet for a while now.

"Why out of all people did you have to go with Nightshade?" asked Robin looking at Batman. Aqualad opened his mouth to answer, but Nightshade cut in.

"Instead of worrying about that, why don't you, Kid Flash and Aqualad try to talk some sense into Red Arrow before he ruins everything?" she said. Just as she finished talking, Red Arrow was announced by the portal and he made his way towards the team. He looked as if he had been neglecting his appearance, his uniform was tarnished and his hair was longer than before. He tried to meet their glances as he made his way towards Aqualad and Nightshade, who was glaring at him.

"I see you got a new teammate, is this what you have been doing instead of looking for Roy?" he asked returning the glare.

"Red Arrow, we—" Kid Flash started but Batman wouldn't let him finish.

"Believe me, we haven't stopped looking for him," Batman told him, "I thought you said you didn't want to be part of this mission," said Batman walking up to him. Roy stared at him and then pulled out a file that he handed to Batman.

"I don't. I just thought you would like to see this," he said and started walking away. The man took one last look at Nightshade before leaving. She seemed to recognize him even though he had never seen her before. After Roy was gone, Batman took a look at the file, it was a map of the possible locations of the artifact, and another map with the possible locations of the real Roy Harper.

"Looks like Red Arrow got an actual lead, while all you did was run around connecting dots," said Robin, Nightshade glared at him before walking deeper into the cave. The team and Batman remained silent until they heard the sound of the hangar door opening which probably meant that Nightshade had left already. Rocket, Aqualad, Superboy and Batman turned to glare at Robin.

"Way to go Blunder Boy," said Rocket walking out of the cave. Robin didn't understand why suddenly they all started siding with Nightshade, well he did understand that he had messed up, he just didn't want to admit it. Artemis watched her leave and wondered whether the files her father was talking about had something to do with the investigation she and Aqualad had been doing.


	9. Blood Ties Pt II

Washington D.C- June 5- 5:43 P.M-

Red Arrow waited for the carjackers to drive up the street and fall directly into his trap. Once he heard the car coming, he shot an arrow across the street that released a cable that ran from one side to the other. When the car got closer, he took out another arrow, and as the car crashed against the cable he shot one of the tires stopping it completely.

"Well, that's one way to do it," said Kid Flash stopping right in front of Roy. The moment he saw him, he started moving deeper into the alley just to run into Robin.

"If you want to convince me to work with you, then you're wasting your time," he told them spotting Aqualad right behind Kid Flash. "I'm doing things my way, stopping the Light, finding Roy. All of it," he said.

"Then why tell us about it in the first place?" asked Aqualad taking out a transparent bag with a new, clean uniform for Red Arrow. "We thought you could use this Roy," said Aqualad handing it to Red Arrow. After hearing the name Roy, he felt the blood rush to his head and so he threw the uniform to the ground.

"I should have known this was going to be a bad idea, you can forget about it. I'll handle it myself," he said and shot an arrow to the rooftop of a building nearby to get away from the three of them. He knew they would follow him, so Red Arrow started running and jumping roofs with the teens right behind him. Kid Flash pulled up ahead of him and tried to stop him, but Red Arrow shot a trick arrow that exploded right in front of him. He turned around to see Robin and Aqualad still behind him so, he threw a few smoke pellets and jumped off the roof onto another one and kept his back on the wall until he could no longer hear them.

Artemis had been following them thinking she would be able to talk some sense into Red Arrow, but she couldn't find the chance; and now that he was all alone, she was about to get closer when she spotted Nightshade coming up behind him. Red Arrow heard the footsteps and turned around ready to punch whoever was following him "Just leave me alone already!" he said, but Nightshade blocked his fist.

"I think I liked you better with the yellow hat," she said letting go of his fist and using her hands to pretend she was putting on a hat. Red Arrow grinded his teeth and tried to land a kick, but Nightshade blocked it too. "What's wrong pixie? You've gotten slow," she said twisting his arm behind his back and forcing him to the ground.

"Who are you?" he said trying not to show how much it hurt, but just as he tried to break away from her grip, he felt his head throbbing and started getting some flashes of memories, broken images popped up in his mind and in one of them he saw a girl that looked a lot like her.

"Right, I don't think we have been properly introduced. The name's Nightshade," she told him finally letting go of him. Red Arrow stood up and compared her to the girl in his mind, she looked older than the girl and had shorter hair. "I heard you were looking for Roy Harper," she said crossing her arms over her chest.

"Why do you—so what if I am?" he asked dusting himself off. "The League has already given up, but I can't," he said.

"Right, because you're his clone. You're chasing shadows," she told him, "If the Light took him, then he's probably dead already. They tend to do that,"

"How do you know that?" he asked, but Nightshade didn't answer right away, instead she stared at him for a long time.

"What? you think you're the only one they messed with?" she asked taking out the uniform that he had left behind when he was running away from the others. "If you don't want to join us that's fine, but the least you could do is stay out of the way; with your lousy training and your current condition, the only thing you'll do is screw things up. Take a shower, you desperately need one," she told him throwing the new uniform at him before walking away.

Red Arrow watched her leave and when she was finally out of sight, his head started throbbing again. More flashbacks and images started popping up in his mind, but they were going too fast and he was unable to really tell them apart. The only image that stood out from the rest was both Luthor and the girl that was eerily similar to Nightshade standing together. From the distance, Artemis watched the whole scene, she really wasn't counting on Nightshade. She watched Red Arrow leave with the uniform under his arm and she didn't move until she couldn't see anyone anymore and instead left after Nightshade.

After following her for a while she stopped when she saw the girl standing in front of a closed store's window. Artemis Watched Nightshade use the window as a mirror for a while, nothing seemed odd until she started talking to it, though she couldn't make out what she was saying, something was not right with her reflection. It did look like her, but hair was different, it looked longer and with a red-ish color. Artemis pulled out a pair of binoculars, she watched Nightshade yelling at her reflection, but upon taking a closer look she recognized the red head on the other side of the window as the one they had seen in Black Canary's video.

"Nightfall," she said kicking some scrap, just as she did the reflection looked up at her and Nightshade's gaze followed, but Artemis managed to hide from them. She wasn't sure of what she had seen, but she knew that was not just a simple reflection. When she looked again, she saw that the spot where Nightshade had been standing earlier was now empty.

New York City Police Station- June 5- 7:20 P.M-

Mayor Hall stepped out of the NYPD station, his body guards shielding him from the crowd of reporters that had gathered outside of the building. They were all asking questions about Nightshade and the destruction she constantly caused around the city, they wanted to know why she was still running around freely without the city pursuing charges. Usually Hall would just remind them that she kept the city safe, and that destruction was inevitable in situations like that, his favorite example was Superman and Metropolis. Tonight, he chose to stay quiet and just clear everything up in a press conference when he had the chance to prepare a more valid point that would please New Yorkers, but for now he had something more personal to worry about.

"Clear my schedule for tomorrow, it's my wife's birthday and I want to spend it with her," he said getting into his car, his assistant nodded and got into the car after him. Silence filled the car, the Mayor wasn't someone that spoke a lot and his subordinates were already used to it so no one disturbed him. After a few minutes into the ride, they heard a loud sound coming from the roof of the car, and the car shook a little forcing the driver to steer in the opposite direction to avoid tipping over the side. One of the bodyguards took his head out the window and looked up only to be pulled out of the car and thrown into the street. The mayor watched the man rolling on the street right behind them and without hesitating, he turned to look at his assistant. "Call her!" he ordered before the car crashed into a lamppost.

Mayor Hall was taken out of the car and was being covered by the rest of his bodyguards, but when they looked at the roof of the car, there was no one there. Mayor Hall fixed his tie and turned around to tell his assistant to get another car when he saw Batman standing behind him and his bodyguards. Once they saw him, the bodyguards threw themselves at Batman, but he expertly fought them off and incapacitated them, leaving one the two of them in the street.

"Wha—what do you want?" he asked, but Batman didn't answer he just kept walking as the Mayor backed away from him. He grabbed Hall's shirt and pulled him closer to him, raising his fist in the air he got ready to hit the man that refused to look away from him, or close his eyes in anticipation.

"Have you finally lost your fucking mind?" asked Nightshade blocking the hit that was directed at the Mayor, Nightshade kicked him in the stomach and pushed him back a few feet before lowering her guard after the Mayor fell to the ground. "I have no intention of fighting nor am I in the mood, so you might as well tell me why the fuck did you just attack him," she said looking at Batman.

"I figured it was the only way to find you," he said also lowering his guard.

"This is the part where you leave, Hall," she told him waiting for him to get out of the way.

"I'm not going anywhere until I know why The Batman tried to attack me," he told her taking a couple steps back, but not getting out of the way entirely. His eyes were fixated on Batman; that was one thing Nightshade always liked about Hall, the man had balls. He was able to stare everyone down with such calmness, it actually made her kind of jealous. Batman threw a batarang at Nightshade which she deflected with her sword.

"This has nothing to do with you Major Hall, I just wanted to get her attention," said Batman in his deep voice. His eyes examining every inch of the girl, her stance, her suit, the way she held her sword, and her fighting technique. All of it reminded him of someone else, but it wasn't until she launched herself at him that he remembered who it was. "Ra's al Ghul," he said blocking the hit with his gauntlets.

Nightshade got distracted for a few seconds, allowing Batman to take the chance and push her down to the ground. The girl hit her head against the pavement but instead of giving in to the pain, she wrapped her legs around his waist and pushed him down so now she was on top of him. Nightshade then tried to punch his face, but Batman blocked it and redirected her fist to the pavement. A sharp pain ran up her knuckles, then it extended to the rest of her arm.

"No one around you is allowed to have their own secrets, are they?" she said holding him down ignoring the pain thinking it was bound to go away eventually.

"Not when they endanger the safety of the people I care about," he said looking up at her and then grabbing her collar and pulling her over his head. Nightshade did a barrel roll and easily got back on her feet.

"Yet you keep quite a few," she said landing a kick to his face. That statement caught him off guard which was partly the reason why she had been able to hit him. What did she know? He thought as he blocked the next hit, there was something unsettling about the way she had said it. It didn't sound like an empty statement, yet his mind was occupied by her connection to Ra's al Ghul, her fighting style not only resembled his master's, but also his own. Batman kept those questions in the back of his mind to focus on blocking another round of hits. A few minutes into the fight, Batman threw a batarang that Nightshade dodged but then it was directed towards Major Hall. Nightshade quickly took out a knife that curved and took the batarang off course.

"Good aim and good pulse, good reflexes, but you're too impulsive," said Batman examining her stance.

"Try great instead of good," she said.

"Too arrogant. I need a word with you," he continued.

"That's it!" said Hall looking at Nightshade. "What are you waiting for? Take him out!" he demanded. Nightshade looked at the caped crusader and lowered her guard.

"Fine I get, let's go somewhere else," she said walking away with Batman leading the way. "Major Hall, don't be mistaken. You pay me to take care of the city, not to be your personal body guard. If I barely take any orders from him, what makes you think I'll take orders from you?" she told him turning her head to look at him before following Batman to the Batmobile.

"Get in," he said. Nightshade stared at the legendary car, she had seen it before but never this close. She noticed every detail, every scratch, every sign of repaint before finally getting into the car.

Batman drove the Batmobile in silence while Nightshade stared out the window, watching the trees blur from the high speed. The scene didn't change until they reached a waterfall where the car jumped right through and landed on the other side to continue speeding through a cave. After a few minutes, they arrived to what Nightshade assumed was the Batcave, and as soon as the door opened, she jumped out of the car. The girl tried to hide her amazement at all the gadgets and memorabilia scattered around the room, but once she spotted the Batwing in the middle of the room, hiding her excitement became harder.

"how long have you been working for Hall?" he asked.

"I don't like to think I work for him, he just pays me for getting rid of criminals," she said, "Now, if you want to know how long I've been in New York City, well I would have to say that it's been three years now," she watched Batman make his way towards the computer and open a file he had on her. Nightshade read a few things before walking towards the memorabilia; she spotted a katana placed on one of the shelves, but as she reached out to touch it, Batman spoke.

"That's Ra's al Ghul's sword," he said while Nightshade pulled her hand back, "but I guess you already knew that, after all you seem to have trained with him," he said.

"Well his fighting style tends to stick, he really likes to do things his way," she answered leaving an ambiguous feeling in her reply. Batman figured that was the most he would get out of her for the moment so he directed his attention towards a metallic cylinder that laid on a table and picked it up along with a white box. He slowly approached Nightshade and placed it next to her.

"Graduation gift," he said. Nightshade picked up the box and opened it to find rubber bullets, "tell me when you run out," he instructed giving her his back. She examined the cylinder until she found a button on the other end, when she pressed it a sharp blade came out from the opposite side. He must have heard how she had to leave her sword behind when fighting Shrapnel, but that didn't explain how he knew she was graduating.

"How did you...? Nevermind, I guess it's easy when you're a billionaire with too much time in your hands," she said making Batman turn around to meet her eyes. The girl smiled and put the sword away, while Batman pulled down his cowl to reveal his face which Nightshade returned by taking off her mask. "Nice to meet you, Bruce Wayne."


	10. Blood Ties Pt III

Mount Justice- June 12- 8:45 P.M-

Artemis walked into the hangar where the rest of the team was getting everything ready for the mission. They were loading up devices and weapons while Aqualad, Robin and Nightshade checked the final touches of the plan. Artemis had grown weary of Nightshade and since that day she had been keeping her distance, and following her around the city at night, but her little investigation had led her nowhere and Wally was starting to get worried about her lack of sleep. She needed help, but she couldn't ask her boyfriend, after all he seemed to completely trust Nightshade, Rocket and Superboy were also out of the question, Miss Martian was busy with her own problems and Zatanna seemed like she didn't want to be involved with Nightshade. Her eyes then fell on Robin and Aqualad, she figured Robin was the safest bet, with him being the protégée of the greatest detective in the world and all.

"Nightshade, where's your gear?" asked Superboy who had just finished loading a box of rubber bullets Batman had left behind and some other things. The girl looked up from the table and sighed after seeing the box inside.

"I'll go get it," she said. Artemis took the chance and followed Nightshade out the door. "What are you doing?" she asked when she noticed Artemis walking behind her.

"I thought you could use some help carrying your things," she answered, "and maybe you could tell me about those files Sportsmaster was talking about," Nightshade ignored her and leaned down to pick up one of the bags that was on the ground and handed it to Artemis.

"If you really want to help, then carry this bag. Be careful though, shake it too hard and it could blow up," she said. Artemis looked at the bag in her hands and swallowed hard before going after Nightshade; at this point she didn't know if she was kidding or not, but she wasn't about to risk it.

"Fine, if you don't want to talk about that, then tell me what is going on with Nightfall," that made Nightshade stop and turn around to face Artemis.

"Are you investigating me or something?"

"Well you're not exactly the most trustworthy person on this team,"

"Huh," she said a bit taken aback, Nightshade really though she had earned Artemis' trust. In fact, she was one of the few people on the team she actually liked, "I guess you would know about that," she said and took the bag from her before leaving.

Back in the hangar, Kid Flash restocked some junk food in the compartment on his wrist, Robin checked that his belt had everything he needed, Artemis started loading all of her normal arrows and trick arrows into her quiver and Nightshade placed her guns on her tights and a brand new retractable sword on her hips, her multiple knives hidden by the belt she was wearing.

"Everyone knows the plan?" asked Aqualad one last time, they all nodded. "This will be dangerous, but if everyone follows the plan, then we should be able to make it," he said before the team started to board the ship.

"Was that supposed to be a pep talk?" asked Kid Flash while walking past Nightshade who had stopped right in front of the door. Rocket and Superboy popped their heads out and tried to hide their laughter as they watched the girl frozen in place. She was seriously considering whether she should go into Miss Martian's ship, since it would be her fist time in it.

"Seriously?" asked Kid Flash. "Come on, we're going to be late," he said running towards Nightshade and taking her inside the ship before she could even react.

"Miss Martian, let's go before she decides to run away," said Rocket, she wouldn't admit it, but Nightshade had really grown on her. Miss Martian's ship took off, while Nightshade was still trying to find a place to sit away from Wolf. After half an hour of flying at high speed, Batman's face popped up on the screen.

"The excavation began in the afternoon, you should be getting to the first drop zone in a few minutes. Is the first team ready?" he asked, Robin looked at Superboy and Artemis who nodded. The floor opened and the three of them made their way down to the forest after Miss Martian lowered her ship just enough for them to jump out. "Drop zone number two is up ahead, the second team?" he asked. Zatanna and Kid Flash turned to look at Nightshade who was staring down the hole in the ship.

"There's no way I'm doing this if I have to jump out of this thing," she said just before Kid Flash and Zatanna wrapped their arms around her shoulders and jumped together to land safely on the ground thanks to one of Zatanna's spells.

"Does she really think we don't know?" asked Rocket turning around to face the rest of the team only to meet Batman's glare, "maybe that's conversation for another time," she corrected herself and listened as Batman gave the third team their instructions to stay on the other side of the island where they had reports of an ongoing excavation.

The first team landed a few minutes away from the nearest excavation. Robin led the way with a map of the island coming out of his wrist. They avoided the guards that were making rounds in the island and the occasional workers that were on a break. Sneaking around using the trees and bushes in their favor, they got closer to the excavation site.

"Do you think it was good idea to have Nightshade lead the other team?" asked Artemis, Nightshade's possible relationship with Nightfall had left her with an ominous feeling that only grew stronger when they had put her in charge of the second team. "I know she helped you out with the plan, but Zatanna is more level-headed," she said, but to her surprise, both Robin and Superboy laughed.

"I understand your concern, but saying that Z is more level-headed is just a lame excuse. You are talking about the girl that put on the helmet of fate on a whim," said Robin. "I don't like it any more than you do, but for now we just have to trust her," he finished talking right before they spotted a new group of guards that Superboy took care of.

Meanwhile, the second team was going through the middle of the island, "is there anything I should know about Cheshire and Sportsmaster? Other than their relationship to Artemis, of course," said Nightshade eyeing Kid Flash as they ran. "No offense to your girlfriend, I know what that's like," she said as they all came to a sudden stop.

"They've been working with The Light for a few years, both of them are skilled in combat and assassination techniques, Cheshire's weapons are usually covered in poison so be careful," said Kid Flash running ahead while Nightshade and Zatanna stayed behind. Nightshade let Zatanna walk when she started hearing some interference in her earbud.

" _ **Nightshade, the drones are in position. We are scanning the whole island, but so far there's only guards scattered around,"**_ said Lance. He was staring at a split screen with three drones following the three teams closely. _**"I'll let you know if I find anything,"**_ he said. Nightshade placed one earbud in her other ear and followed behind the group, but she lowered the volume of the music so that they wouldn't hear it.

The third team landed on the other side of the island, Miss Martian's ship was left in camouflage mode and the three of them and Wolf stepped out and started to make their way through the trees. They had the only visible excavation site, so they were pretty sure conflict would come faster for them than for the others. While they made their way towards the site, Rocket heard something moving along the trees which forced the whole team to stop and try to locate where the sound was coming from. They looked around for some time until they heard a group of guards coming their way.

"Find cover," ordered Aqualad before the group split and hid in the area. The four of them stayed hidden until they saw an arrow land in the middle of the group of guards. Aqualad immediately recognized it and jumped out of his cover in time for the arrow to blow up the guards and get the attention of the others. "Red Arrow!" said Aqualad.

"Sorry, but I need a distraction," he said jumping down from a tree and running towards the excavation site. Soon enough, more guards had gathered around them and they could hear more coming; Aqualad watched Red Arrow dodge the incoming guards, leaving them behind.

"Well, your friend just screwed us over," said Rocket preparing for the fight. Wolf was the first one to launch himself at the group followed by Miss Martian who ripped out a tree from the ground and swept a few guards away with it. Aqualad on the other hand, used his water bearers to form a hammer and make his way through the growing group. "I'm calling Nightshade," said Rocket flying to a safe distance before shooting energy blasts down at the ground.

"Then I'll let Robin know," said Miss Martian. Honestly the plan had accounted for a Red Arrow appearance, but they weren't counting on him using the team as a distraction.

On the other side, Artemis came to a sudden stop when she heard the explosion coming from the far end of the island. "What the hell happened?" she asked looking back at Robin.

"Roy is here. He used Aqualad and the others as bait so he could reach the excavation," explained Robin who had just gotten out of a call with Miss Martian.

"If they know they are here, then they are probably looking for us too," said Superboy. "Do Nightshade and the others know?" he asked getting ready his communicator to warn them.

"Rocket is telling Nightshade," said Robin The three of them fell silent for a few seconds and that was when Superboy heard the rustling of the leaves, he turned to his right only to be hit in the back by one of the guards. The team suddenly found themselves surrounded by some guards.

"Crap," said Robin. Artemis looked around, they were completely surrounded by fifteen guards that had popped out of nowhere, but instead of surrendering, Artemis started shooting her arrows and Robin pulled out his birdarangs. "They are members of the League of Shadows, not your average henchmen," he said while jumping up in the air and kicking one of them across the face only to land and punch another one in the stomach. Superboy grabbed one of them and used him to hit other two guards knocking them over, he then focused his attention on a different group of guards while Artemis took out a few others with a trick arrow.

"What are Sportsmaster and Cheshire doing with the League of Shadows?" she asked taking out another one of her trick arrows and shooting it at a group of guards only to have it explode in front of them. Robin knocked down a couple of guards that were about to attack Artemis from behind and remained with his back to the blonde girl.

"Ra's al Ghul," he answered as the two of them fought back to back covering each other. Superboy quickly took down the five guards that were left standing and the group focused their attention on reaching the other side of the island.

When a second bomb went off, Nightshade, Kid Flash and Zatanna where in the middle of sneaking around a group of guards that were rushing to the explosion. "Change of plans, we're the only team that hasn't been spotted and we have to keep it that way," she said.

" _ **Red Arrow is making his way towards a second excavation site, it's right ahead,"**_ said Lance. Nightshade started running without giving them an explanation, leaving the other two to follow her. While they ran, Zatanna noticed someone coming their way, but it wasn't until later that she saw it was Red Arrow with a group of guards following him.

"selkna sih dnuob," she said and a vine quickly wrapped itself around his feet making him fall on his face. Kid Flash and Nightshade saw this and pulled Red Arrow into the bushes while the guards ran past them.

"I thought I told you before to get out of the way before you mess things up," she said watching Red Arrow get up from the ground and dust off.

"And I thought I told you that I would do things my own way," he said pushing Nightshade's shoulder, before turning to look at the others, "why are you working with someone like her? Have you even wondered where she came from? She might be working for The Light," he said getting ready to keep talking, but Kid Flash punched him across the face.

"Why would you do that?! If you want to get yourself killed, fine, just don't put everyone else in danger," he said. Red Arrow was speechless, he didn't think Kid Flash was able of doing something like that.

"Okay, you can talk about that later, but now that you're here, you might as well help us," said Zatanna leading the way towards the excavation site. Kid Flash and Red Arrow instinctively turned to look at Nightshade who shrugged and followed her. After a few minutes of an uninterrupted walk, they finally reached the excavation site. Zatanna propped herself behind the bushes in the middle of Red Arrow and Kid Flash to keep them from fighting. She knew that if Red Arrow gave him a chance, Kid Flash would end up hitting him again, so she thought it was better to be safe than sorry.

Nightshade sat away from them, while Lance gave her an update on the others. _**"Bird Boy and the others should be here in a few minutes, they look fine, but the third group is starting to get overwhelmed,"**_ he said. Nightshade looked over at the team and then at the excavation site, Cheshire stood in the middle watching over the workers that were looking for their artifact. Just then, one of the workers passed them by, so Kid Flash pulled him back into the bushes. The man found himself tied to a tree with Zatanna, Red Arrow and Kid Flash looking down at him, ready to interrogate him when Nightshade squatted down to meet his eyes.

"Now buddy, you are going to tell us a couple things about this, or I'm going to leave you tied to that tree for what's left of your short life," she said with a smile planted across her lips, a chill ran down his spine when he saw it. After seeing that smile, another blurry memory stared playing in his mind, but he shook it away and walked up to Nightshade and the worker.

"Have you found anything yet?" asked Red Arrow moving Nightshade out of the way, the man shook his head, "how many of you are out there?"

"Just a dozen, they wanted it to be small," he said occasionally glancing at Nightshade, she had pulled out a knife and was playing with it, "but they brought guards, they are everywhere I'm not sure how many of them are. Haven't seen them lately. Please don't kill me!" he pleaded looking directly at Nightshade, Red Arrow and Zatanna turned around to see Nightshade casually putting away her knife.

" _ **Wipe that smug smile off your face. The others are right around the corner,"**_ Lance explained. _**"Oh shit! Mammoth just arrived to where Aqualad is, and if Mammoth is here, Shimmer must be close; they are going to need back up,"**_ he finished. Nightshade was trying to come up with a plan when they heard a loud thud coming from behind, so the four of them turned around to see Robin, Artemis and Superboy. Their faces turned from tired to angry when they laid eyes on Red Arrow, Robin even tried to punch him, but Nightshade stopped him.

"You can use him as a punch him bag later. This guy here says he hasn't seen many guards lately which means they are probably on the other side," she said. "Did you find anything on your side?" she asked.

"No, the excavation was completed and there was no one there," answered Artemis. It had been a while since she saw Nightshade, so it was no surprise that her unpleasant feeling grew when they met.

"This is it then," said Robin. He looked over at Kid Flash and Zatanna, "go help the others, and come back when you're done," he said. The two of them nodded and left for the other side of the island.

"Okay, let's go," said Nightshade walking away from them.

"Wait! You're not going to leave me here are you?" asked the worker still tied to the tree. Nightshade turned to look at him, he couldn't see her eyes, but he just knew she was glaring at him.

"Guess again," she said and continued walking. All of the team was already ahead, but Red Arrow had stayed behind with her. "Come on Pixie," she said walking past him with the gun in her hand and changing out the rubber bullets for real ones. In that moment, another memory-filled headache forced him to the ground, Red Arrow heard Nightshade calling him pixie, but saw a red head staring back at him. He remembered her piercing glance and mocking smile as they were taking away the real Roy Harper in a container.

"You're one of them," he said looking up at Nightshade. "You work for the Light," he said grabbing her collar.

"What happened Pixie, did you finally snap?" she asked raising an eyebrow. Red Arrow just got angrier and threw Nightshade out of the bushes right next to Cheshire. "Oh this is bad," she said looking up at the masked girl.

"Yes, yes it is," Cheshire replied, her voice muffled by the mask that was covering her face. She took out her sais and tried to stab Nightshade, but she moved away. Red Arrow used one of his swords to glue Nightshade's feet to the ground, reducing her mobility and the type of attacks she could do to fend off Cheshire.

"What are you doing?" asked Robin coming out of the bushes and blocking a hit from Cheshire.

"She's one of them!" yelled Red Arrow preparing an arrow to shot it directly at her face.

"If I were one of them, would she be trying to kill me?!" asked Nightshade pointing at Cheshire. At around the same time, the rest of the group was still hiding in the bushes wondering whether they should come out or not when they got pushed out by Sportsmaster.

"Hello baby girl," he said talking to Artemis while ignoring Superboy. "We were wondering where you were," he said and then he proceeded to swing his knife against them forcing them to come out of their hideout. Artemis charged at Sportsmaster, but he moved away from her and hit her in the back knocking her over. Superboy was going to help her, but Artemis quickly stood up and landed a kick to the chest, so he turned his attention to Nightshade who was still trapped. He rushed to help her out of Red Arrow's trap, Superboy used his strength to separate the foam from Nightshade's feet.

While they were at it, Artemis found herself alone in front of her father, she reached for an arrow and shot it at him, but he moved away from it. Sportsmaster launched himself at her hoping to strike her with his knife, Artemis saw him coming and jumped out of the way making him stumble forward. She shot another arrow that he once again dodged. "You missed," he mocked her right before hearing a beeping come from the arrow embedded on the ground.

"Did I?" she asked. Sportsmaster didn't have enough time to move and was caught in the explosion. Artemis figured she had some time before her dad jumped out at her again, so she turned around to see how the others were doing, only to see Nightshade punching Red Arrow in the face while Robin and Superboy dealt with Cheshire. "What are you doing?" asked Artemis running up to them.

"Have you calmed down?" asked Nightshade, completely ignoring Artemis. Red Arrow sat on the ground for a few seconds before nodding and reached out for Artemis' hand that pulled him back on his feet. She looked back to Robin and Superboy, they were dodging Cheshire's hits, but her attention was drawn to Sportsmaster's figure that was coming for them. The girl pushed Nightshade and Red Arrow out of the way only to receive the blow herself. Once she was on the ground, Sportsmaster made walked closer to her, only to be stopped by Red Arrow and Nightshade.

"That's as close as you get," Said Red Arrow, with his bow ready and his hand hovering over his quiver. Nightshade on the other hand was already aiming her guns at him, her hand steadily on the trigger as if she was waiting for him to take just one more step before blowing his brains out. Cheshire saw this and threw a small knife at them, that they were able to dodge thanks to the fact that Artemis tackled them to the ground again.

"Even though I appreciate it, I'm getting tired of being pushed down," said Nightshade taking out a knife of her own and throwing it back at her. "Guys, how about we switch? I get the feeling Cheshire wants to play with us," she said and the three of them got up to attack Cheshire while Superboy and Robin ran back to Sportsmaster. While running, Red arrow took out an arrow and threw it at her feet; it opened and released a thick coat of smoke.

Even though Cheshire was taken aback by an explosion caused by Red Arrow, her confusion didn't last long since her mask allowed her to breath with ease. Using the smoke to her advantage, Nightshade attacked her and managed to kick her in the face breaking a bit of the mask. Cheshire tried to thrust in her Sais, but Nightshade dodged it and it only managed to cut her on the side; Nightshade covered the wound with her palm, but then moved her hand away to allow Cheshire to see the wound closing while the girl gave her a small smile. Cheshire moved away from Nightshade and towards Red Arrow and started to swiftly move her Sais to deliver fast attacks that he couldn't avoid, he got more and more tired with every move he made until she finished him off with a flash bomb that disorientated him and allowed her to kick him.

An arrow brushed past her, she turned around to see Artemis with another arrow ready. "You're going to be tough huh?" asked Cheshire looking directly at her sister. Artemis threw another arrow that hit the ground right in front of her and exploded; she moved through the smoke, ready to strike Cheshire when her sister appeared from behind her. "I'm not falling for the same trick twice," she warned her wrapping her arm around her neck.

Artemis elbowed her in the stomach and threw her over her head. Cheshire landed on her feet only to push Artemis away from her; the girl stumbled a little, but found her footing and returned the push with a kick to the side. Artemis was using her bow as a weapon trying to save arrows, but it proved no match to Cheshire's kunai. She ended up being thrown to the ground, and just before the kunai could hurt her, it clashed with Nightshade's sword.

"Trying to kill your own sister? Wow, and I thought _I_ was cold-blooded," she said pushing Cheshire away from Artemis. She then avoided the next hit but then Cheshire cut her with the Kunai, the wound started to close but she was feeling a bit light-headed.

"That one had a tiny drop of venom, not enough to kill you, but enough to leave you out for a while," said Cheshire. The woman swung her Kunai at Nightshade who blocked it again with the sword. Nightshade then pressed the sword against her neck trying to get Cheshire to drop her weapon, but the woman moved around the sword and twisted Nightshade's hand forcing her to drop the sword. Nightshade screamed in pain, but then did a low sweep kick that brought Cheshire to the ground.

"Why would Ra's al Ghul send you two to retrieve the artifact?" she asked looking down at Cheshire

"We're not here for that," she said dodging another hit and managing to get close enough to Nightshade to stab her through the chest. The Kunai went right through to the other side of her body, it didn't give the girl enough time to react when she was already spitting out blood.

"You fucking bitch," said Nightshade with her last breaths. Cheshire took out the Kunai and watched as Nightshade fell to the floor creating a puddle of blood around her body.

"The artifact is just an added bonus," she said and walked away from her.

"Nightshade!" yelled Robin running away from Sportsmaster and up to her only to be stopped by Cheshire. She hit him across the face and threw him back to where Red Arrow was. Artemis then attacked her from the back, she kicked and brought her down to the ground next to Nightshade's body. Artemis glanced to see the girl lying face down on the floor as the puddle of blood grew right under her until the point it touched Artemis' knee. Infuriated, she punched her sisters mask, breaking it.

"What did you do?" she asked looking right at Cheshire. The woman didn't answer, she just wrapped her legs around her and pushed her down.

Robin got up from the ground, he looked around to see that Nightshade was still lying face down on the ground and Artemis was fighting Cheshire next to her while Superboy fought Sportsmaster.

"You are finally up," said Red Arrow to Robin.

"Is she dead?" asked Robin trying to see if the girl was breathing, but he couldn't see any movement in her chest. Robin started walking towards her, but the fall had hurt his leg and the pain made it hard to move.

"Most likely, surviving an injury like that would be hard," said Red Arrow looking down at her.

Meanwhile on the other side of the island, Rocket and Aqualad had been fighting Mammoth, with Kid Flash, Wolf, Zatanan and Miss Martian fighting the other guards. They had been doing it for a while when Shimmer came out of the bushes and attacked Zatanna. She managed to push her down to the ground and land a few punches before Zatanna cast a spell that pulled her away from her and deeper into the woods.

Kid Flash, Wolf and Miss Martian were fighting an increasingly large group of guards. Miss Martian tried to swoop them away into the water, while Kid Flash ran around a large group forming a small-scale tornado with them at the center and he had Wolf attack the ones that fell off. The three of them were doing a great job at sweeping the guard away, leaving Mammoth to Aqualad and Rocket.

Mammoth had almost pushed Aqualad off the edge of the cliff when Rocket started shooting energy blasts at him to get Mammoth to let go of Aqualad and focus on her instead. It worked long enough to allow Aqualad some room to recover and ambush him while he was busy trying to swat Rocket off like she was some kind of annoying mosquito. He used his water-bearers to form a large hammer and hit him in the back of the head while at the same time electrocuting him with his magic. With that, and one last blast from Rocket, he fell to the ground unconscious.

The two of them looked over to see how the rest was doing and found that they were getting ready to help them with Mammoth before witnessing the last blow. While still in the air, Rocket turned to look over at the others, they were fighting Cheshire, but she couldn't see Sportsmaster or Nightshade anywhere. She waited a while and without saying anything, she suddenly started flying over towards them, leaving the others to follow her.

Cheshire had started attacking the four of them forcing Robin and Red Arrow to move away from Nightshade's body. _**"Don't you think you've play dead long enough?"**_ asked Lance. Nightshade started getting up slowly taking advantage of the distraction and was now trying to sneak around them to take care of the excavation site, but her path was blocked by Sportsmaster.

"I did hear you were going to be hard to kill," he told her looking at her wound-free chest. "Hard, but not impossible," he said and charged at her, Nightshade dodged him and with her sword, she managed to make a superficial cut across his chest. Sportsmaster grabbed her by the arm and threw her towards the heavy machinery, the girl hit her back against a crane and remained there until Sportsmaster got close enough so that she was able to pull him to the ground where she pressed her foot against his throat.

"The Light seems to have gotten worse at picking their lackeys," she said smiling down at him while pressing harder. "Everything you've heard about me is probably wrong, I'm actually much, much worse," she said before walking away from him and towards the excavation site; the workers had finally found the artifact and were hiding it from both sides.

"I'll be taking that," said Nightshade reaching out to grab the artifact with one hand while aiming her gun with the other, so they easily handed her the egg-shaped artifact "What the hell is this?" she asked examining it from every angle, but she couldn't figure out how to activate it. It wasn't until she heard a loud thud that she looked up from the artifact to see that Cheshire had kicked Artemis forcing her to tumble and lose her balance, she started to fall off when she saw Red Arrow rushing towards her. He reached out to grab her hand, but he wasn't fast enough, and just like that Red Arrow and the others watched Artemis fall off the cliff.

After doing that, Cheshire and Sportsmaster started to run away into the woods, Nightshade tried to follow them, but she lost them after they went deeper inside.

"Artemis!" yelled Robin, there was no way they were losing two teammates in one night. He leaned in over the edge to see if she had hit the water, but instead he saw Rocket fly up holding Artemis in her arms. The blonde girl was holding onto her as they floated in the air waiting for the others to catch up.

"Nice catch. I have to be honest thought, for a few seconds there I really thought you wouldn't be able to make it," said Nightshade looking up at Rocket. Actually, Nightshade had seen Rocket and the others coming their way right before Artemis fell over the edge. The girl put Artemis down on the ground and as soon as her feet touched the ground, she rushed towards Nightshade and wrapped her arms around her.

"I really thought you were dead," said Artemis forgetting everything else for a moment, "wait, you should be dead," she said pushing her away and looking at the place where the wound was supposed to be, but the only thing that remained was her exposed skin.

"Uh guys, an explanation would be nice," asked Kid Flash.

"Cheshire stabbed Nightshade through the chest, and somehow she is still talking," answered Robin while he took off his cape and placed it around Nightshade, covering the bare spot on her back and chest.

"It an interesting story actually," said Nightshade letting out a nervous laugh.

"Start talking," said Aqualad.

"It's what you would call an accelerated healing factor," she answered. The team stared at her for a while, all of them bruised and beaten but their injuries were moved to the back of their minds as they tried to figure out what she was saying.

"Oh this is great, she can't die…I feel like my worst nightmare just came true," said Rocket.

"Cute, but that's not really true. It's a flawed healing factor, I actually bleed out faster than average if I get shot, but other than that I don't get hurt," she said, suddenly she saw Red Arrow pulling out an arrow from his quiver and placing it in his bow, "wait…I don't die, but it really does hurt," she started but wasn't able to finish when he shot the arrow directly at her leg and it went right through to the other side. "AH you son of a bitch!" she yelled before breaking the arrow and pulling it out from her leg. The bloody arrow fell to the floor, but the wound started to close as soon as it was out.

"Can I borrow it next, I've been dying to do that for a while now," said Rocket.

"Can you stop?" asked Nightshade. "Let's just get out of here, before anybody feels like pushing me over the cliff," she said and started walking away, Robin's cape dangling in the wind.

"Damn, that was a good idea," said Robin walking by her side. He looked at her as she argued with Rocket who had caught up with them, lately the things she said didn't match her expression. For example, she was laughing while telling Rocket that she should be the one to jump off the edge, he also thought that her expression had softened compared to when she first joined the team. He was deep in thought when Artemis pulled him back, she ran to catch up to them leaving the others behind. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"We need to talk about Nightshade," she said still holding onto his arm.

-Unidentified location-

Sportsmaster and Cheshire started a transmission to The Light, the seven familiar faces popped up in the seven screens. "What news do you have for us?" asked the Brain in his distinctive computerized voice.

"The young heroes now know about Nightshade's healing factor, so the mission was a partial success," informed Sportsmaster, "unfortunately, the Justice League is now in possession of the artifact," he finished. They didn't look happy. Well, all of them but Lex Luthor who had a slight smirk planted on his face.

"We can manage without the artifact for now, I think it's time we move forward with the rest of plan, are you ready?" he asked looking past Cheshire and Sportsmaster. The two of them turned around when they heard footsteps coming from behind.

"Just say when," said a female's voice that remained hidden in the shadows.


	11. The Rogues

New York City- June 16- 8:00 A.M-

Jade rushed through the now empty hall of the school, she hurried around the corner almost losing her balance but made it in time just to have her teacher shut the door in her face and crashing into it. She could hear the laughter inside as the teacher reopened the door and let her in, Jade rubbed her nose and walked up to the empty seat on the third row in the middle of the senior class.

"Ms. Collins next time please just arrive on time," said the teacher as he opened his big book and turned the pages, the small chuckles could still be heard so she placed her hoodie over her head and laid down on the desk, "take the hoodie off Collins, you will not be sleeping in my class," that was it, she thought covering her face with her hands as the class burst into laughter. After the two hours that felt like an eternity Jade walked out of the class only to be tackled by a tall blonde with a squeaky voice.

"Jade! Haven't seen you in so long!" she said as she laid on top of her, Alex Greenwood, Jade had met her on her fist day and since then the girl had stuck around her. Mainly because she thought Jade was amusing to watch.

"Alex, you saw me yesterday, now get off!" she said and stood up once she had gotten off, again people were staring at her, she tried to go unnoticed but it seemed impossible. "Why are you always jumping at me?" she asked as the blonde walked with her to her locker, Jade shoved the books in and took others out causing some of them to fall out.

"Because you amuse me, you are so clumsy it's impossible to stay away," she said as she helped her put the books back in the locker. The girls then walked to the next class and parted ways half way through. When the morning was finally over and it was time for lunch Jade pulled out her phone to find seven missed calls. And all of them were from the same person, Robin. She tried returning the calls but none of them went through. Once inside the cafeteria she tried again, but still no luck, so she grabbed her lunch tray and walked up to her table. On the way there one of the girls at a table pulled out her foot and made her fall to the ground. The truth was that she had seen the foot and that it was incredibly easy to avoid but she just decided not to, just like she decided to crash into the door which in both occasions had turn out to be more embarrassing than she thought.

"Sorry, didn't think you would really fall for that one. Are you sure you're a genius?" asked the girl, Alex helped Jade up and gave her a glare in the process.

"Jade, the outside world is a dangerous place for you," said Alex, "and now with all the superheroes and villains, how do you plan on surviving NYU without us?" she kept making fun of her. Lance and Skye looked at each other with a worried look trying to go along with Alex. Suddenly her phone rang and as soon as it did Jade rushed out of the room bumping into the girl who had tripped her and avoiding the crowd that was coming in. she walked up to the front gate and answered the phone.

"Do you have any idea of how many times I have called you?" asked Robin on the other side of the line, clearly angry with her.

"A couple?" she said and prepared herself for the next scold.

"I don't have time for this, Nightshade I need you in Central City in less than an hour. The Flash and Kid Flash are having trouble with The Rogues," he said.

"Where is the rest of the team?" she asked hoping someone was closer than her.

"Artemis and Aqualad are down in Gotham fighting off the Electrocutioner, Miss Martian, Superboy, Zatanna and Rocket are in the Hall of Justice talking with their mentors. Happy?" he asked, on the background there was a loud noise and a scream so Robin ordered her one more time and hung up. Jade sighed and ran up to the side of the school, hopped on Lance's motorcycle and drove off without noticing that the parking lot was directly in front of the cafeteria and that Alex and a bunch of other people had seen her.

"Is that the same Jade that ran into a door this morning?" Skye and Lance nodded, "the same one that got her shirt caught on the door and ripped it two days ago? Or the one that thought the window was closed and leaned on it only to fall to the ground?" they kept nodding until Alex ran out of embarrassing scenes. "Holy shit, she just got more interesting," she finished.

Central City- 1:15 P.M-

Kid Flash stood in the middle of the main plaza in Central City with Mirror Master, Heat Wave and Captain Cold, he was busy dodging their attacks and at the same time trying to keep them away from the civilians that hadn't been able to evacuate. Kid Flash was getting tired and he kept looking around for anyone that might come, since Robin told him he was going to get back-up, but it had been an hour since then and there was no one to be seen. Captain Cold raised his ray gun and prepared to shoot Kid Flash when his gun was shot out of his hand. The group turned to look in the direction of the bullet only to see Nightshade walking up to them.

"Hey, do you really need my help with this clowns?" she asked.

"The Rogues are not so much of a problem, Zoom is," said Kid Flash just as a gush of wind passed them by. Even though Kid Flash could easily tell it was Flash and Zoom; the only thing Nightshade saw was a red streak being followed by a yellow one. She finally understood what was going on, Zoom had paired up with the Rogues to take down The Flash and Kid Flash, so while he was busy with the Rogues, The Flash was fighting Professor Zoom.

"fine, I'll take Captain here, you take the other two," Captain Cold looked at her and swallowed before pulling out another gun. Nightshade jumped at him and the fight started between the two of them. While they were doing that, Kid Flash was trying to figure out which one of the copies was the real Mirror Master, but everyone he tried vanished in thin air. He avoided a hit form Heat Wave's flamethrower and ran up to him to try and take his weapon, but Mirror Master got in his way. On the other side of the sidewalk Nightshade was dodging ice blasts that came from Captain Cold's gun, she managed to knock the gun out of his hand, but then Captain Cold pulled out a small gun from under his sleeve and pointed it at Nightshade's arm causing it to freeze.

"This is going to be painful," she said as she crashed her arm against one of the brick walls of the building leaving some pieces of shattered ice stuck in her hand, but she pulled them out carefully and then looked at Captain Cold, "for you of course," she said. He watched as the wounds in her hand slowly closed and left no mark. Captain Cold started to back away from her, when the two of them spotted a small vintage music box in the middle. Captain Cold recognized it and ran away from it, leaving Nightshade behind a little confused; she took a few steps back when the box started playing that annoying little song. The box suddenly opened and a clown came out flying, it was only a second later that they toy exploded.

Kid Flash came out of the smoke cloud with Nightshade in his arms. "I was starting to wonder where he was," he said before putting her down on the ground.

"Who?" asked Nightshade.

"Trickster. Try to stay away from anything he throws at you, it usually explodes," he explained before dodging the flames coming from Heat Wave. Nightshade looked up to see a young guy floating in the air, his shoes seemed to allow him to do just that, Trickster lowered himself to the ground and smiled at her. Nightshade was a creeped out by his smile and found herself moving back from him, it was then that Captain Cold hit her with his freeze gun in the back, covering her whole body in ice in just a few seconds.

"Here, pull my finger" said Trickster walking up to her, with his index finger extended. "Oh wait, you can't!" he said letting out a frantic laughter. It was probably a good thing that she was covered in ice, because otherwise she would have beat the shit out of him just for that stupid joke. The girl took a few deep breaths, her hands started glowing bright red and the ice around her started to melt, slowly at first but as the heat rose, it melted faster. Both Captain Cold and the Trickster stepped away from her.

Nightshade looked around to see whether Kid Flash had seen her or not, he had finally found the real mirror master, but was getting dragged around by him and Heat Wave. He was trying to avoid Heat Wave and at the same time holding onto Mirror Master who was using his mirrors to teleport hoping he could shake Kid Flash off. Kid Flash had his arm around Mirror Master's neck when he saw Captain Cold's gun roll towards him. He looked up to see Nightshade pushing both Captain Cold and the Trickster against the wall and then she did something he hadn't seen he do before, she lit her hands on fire and cause a second degree burn in Captain Cold's hand.

He was distracted for a few seconds, but was shook out of his thoughts when Mirror Master threw him over his head and into the hard pavement right next to the freeze gun. Kid Flash grabbed it and shot Mirror Master freezing the lower part of his body. Once he did he cuffed his hands together in time to have Nightshade drag Captain Cold and Trickster right next to Mirror Master. Kid Flash looked at her for a long time, until she noticed; her glance made him look away and towards the only one Rogue left was, Heat Wave. the two teens turned around to look at him; before they could do anything, he used his flamethrower and aimed it at them. Kid Flash carried Nightshade away from the fire and placed her at a safe distance, then he rushed towards him, ran around a few times to take away just enough oxygen for him to pass out.

"What was that?" asked Kid Flash leaning down against the wall next to the villains.

"What was what?" asked Nightshade raising an eyebrow. Just then, from behind her, Flash and Zoom came running and the gush of wind caused both teen to step back and hold onto to the wall to avoid falling. They followed them with their eyes until Kid Flash grabbed the freeze gun and shot Zoom, but this one was too slow and it almost hit The Flash.

"What are you playing at Kid?" he yelled at him without stopping. Kid Flash ran off to help Flash, he got in the way of Zoom and forced him to turn only to meet Flash head on.

While they did that, Nightshade turned to look at The Rogues, she grabbed the heat gun and examined it. It didn't look much different from a normal gun; she was looking at it closely when she heard a loud bang, she turned around to see Flash knocking Zoom down with Kid Flash's help. When Kid Flash forced Zoom to turn around, he ran into Flash who grabbed him and tackled him to the ground causing the loud noise Nightshade had heard.

"Thanks for the help. Nightshade, right?" Asked The Flash as he made his way back to the her and extended his hand, "Batman has been ranting about you for the past few months," he said as Nightshade shook it and nodded.

"I tend to have that effect on people," she said, Flash smiled.

"A feisty girl. I like it," he said, Nightshade rolled her eyes, "If you want to stay, Central City has a lot of interesting things, have you seen The Flash Museum?" he asked.

"I have to go, but I'll keep that in mind for the next time," she said and left on her motorcycle before Kid Flash could even ask her about what he had seen. Flash placed his hand on Kid Flash's head and gave him a little push before walking away.

"Come on, they are waiting for us at the Watchtower," he said waiting for Kid Flash to catch up to him.

Watchtower- 2:45 P.M-

The Flash and Kid Flash walked in, it didn't take them long to realize they were the last ones to arrive, but that didn't explain why neither Robin nor Nightshade were there. The whole Justice League was sitting across from them, not only the main members, most of the others where there including Huntress. After a while Wonder Woman got up from her chair and looked at the team and the League carefully before speaking.

"I guess most of you are wondering why you have been called up here, well we have an issue that involves all of you," she said and on a giant screen behind her, a familiar red head popped up, "this is Nightfall, you may or may not know her. She has been inactive until just a few nights ago, her first sighting was in Gotham City, and she was also seen last night in Metropolis. We know nearly nothing about her other than she has murdered a few of our friends. She's dangerous, so we ask you to keep a look out and call the League if you see her," she said.

"Where is Nightshade and Robin?" asked Aqualad. It didn't feel right to be talking about something like this when they were missing some of their teammates, even if one of those teammates was Nightshade. His question was followed by silence that was only broken by Wonder Woman.

"Robin is busy at the moment, and Nightshade was not invited to the Watchtower. Some of us are convinced she has a deeper relationship with Nightfall than she cares to share," she explained. So even the Justice League had noticed, thought Artemis while staring back at the powerful Amazon Princess.

"I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt, after all Nightshade has been helping the team all this time," said Huntress, who had previously been quietly watching the whole thing. She leaned back on her chair and watched their reactions. Some seemed to like the idea, others showed strong disagreement, and just a few remained expressionless. "I've worked with Nightshade before, sure she is not really the best partner you could ask for, but she gets things done," she continued, unwrapping some candy she had in one of the compartments on her belt.

"You're suggesting that we work with Nightshade even if we can't trust her?" asked Wonder Woman. Huntress nodded. "Fine, but if something happens it will be on you Helena," she said.

"Then I'll share that responsibility, after all I'm in charge of the team," said Batman. "Meeting is dismissed. Keep a lookout for Nightfall," he said before walking deeper into the Watchtower.

New York City- 3:15 P.M-

Jade and Lance had just come back from buying some groceries and were now walking into their building, "do you think she's back yet?" asked Lance digging around his pocket for the keys to the front door of the building.

"Probably not," answered Jade before taking the grocery bag from him while he opened the door.

"Is that beer? Aren't you a little too young for that?" Jade turned around recognizing that voice as no one other than Robin. The guy stood a few steps behind them wearing jeans and a hoddie with sun glasses over his eyes.

"What do you want?" she asked handing the grocery bag back to Lance, "and take off those glasses, you look ridiculous, Grayson," she said.

"Is that really how you are all the time?" asked Dick while he took his sunglasses off to reveal his deep blue eyes.

"Not all the time, if you understand what I mean," said Lance, getting closer to him. He was a whole head taller than Dick, so he had to look up to meet his glare.

"Do you have some time?" he asked looking to get rid of Lance.

"I'll see you in a while," she said and walked up to Dick. He looked at her, she was wearing dark blue jeans and a leather jacket that covered a plain black shirt with a rather revealing cleavage. "You better have a good reason for this, Grayson, and how do you know where I live? Not even Batman knew" she asked.

"That's because he didn't care," he answered. "You live with your boyfriend?" he asked looking at Lance who was walking into the building.

"Not my boyfriend, he and his sister are my roommates," she explained. "Now, what do you want?" she asked once again.

"Really? Then you should tell him, because I think he likes you. Do they know about your other activities?" he asked.

"No. Is this one of those 'I really don't want anything, I just want you to know that I know who you are' kind of thing?" she asked, suspicious of his visit.

"Maybe, but I also came to ask if you want to get something to drink? You know if your scary boyfriend doesn't mind," he said.

"Still not my boyfriend," she said adjusting her jacket and checking her phone before walking down the street with Dick right next to her. He matched her pace and the two of them reached a small coffee shop in the corner, Dick order something for the two of them and they sat down to drink. At first the uncomfortable silence was almost too much to bare until he started talking.

"So, where are your parents?" he asked before tapping a large sip of coffee, but it was too hot and he his face started getting red. Jade couldn't help but let a small laugh escape her mouth, he looked like a little kid. He stared at her while she laughed, thinking the same thing she did, she looked like a little kid when she laughed. The laughter soon died out and Jade stared at her coffee.

"They died when I was seven. My dad fell asleep when we were heading back home and crashed into a pole, I was the only one that survived because my brother covered me with his body," she said finally taking a sip. She checked her phone one more time to see if she had gotten any messages, but the only thing her screen showed was the time. Since Dick didn't say anything, she continued talking "Since then I spent some time going from foster house to foster house until I ran away and settled in that apartment with Lance and Skye," she said anticipating his next question.

"I'm sorry. Why didn't you tell us?" he asked finally being able to speak since his tongue stopped throbbing.

"Yeah well, you never really asked me anything personal, Bird Boy," she answered.

"Was that really necessary?"

"Very. Don't worry you'll get used to it," she said giving him a half smile. "Anything else you want to know, I have time for one more question." Dick thought about it for a while, he could ask what he really came to ask or he could just let it go for now.

"How long have you had your healing factor? Where you born with it or what?" he asked cowering out of asking what he really wanted to ask. He knew Jade would never really answer his question and the timing just wasn't right for something like that. His question changed Jade's expression, her smiling face turned into a soft frown, she was also taking her time answering the question. It seemed that without meaning to, he had touched a sore spot.

"I guess I was born with it, I only found out about it when I got into a fight in school with another girl. She pulled out a pair of scissors and stabbed my arm with them, but the wound just closed right after she pulled them out. Of course, we all freaked out, but no one ever believed us. After coming to New York, I found out it didn't work that well with bullets," she answered gulping down her coffee. They stared at each other for a few seconds and were only interrupted by a Jade's phone going off. "I have to go. Thanks for the ambush, though I'll admit the coffee was a nice touch. Next time come tell Artemis she can come too," she said.

"Jade!" Yelled Dick calling after her, "you look better when you smile," he said, but instead of answering, the girl just ran back to her apartment. Dick went off in the other direction, he walked a few blocks before reaching down for his phone and dialing Artemis' number. He let it ring a few times, but hung up when he saw the blonde girl waiting for him in front of a bus station. It looked like she had been sitting there for a while since there were three empty cans of coke right next to her and another one on her hand.

"So?" she asked, "did she say anything?"

"Well she knows," he said sitting down right next to her.

"How?" said Artemis burring her hands in her palms. Dick didn't answer, he didn't know how she knew either. "Did you at least get something?"

"Right, because going up to someone and asking them: 'hey we know you have something to do with Nightfall and the Light, so why don't you just tell us?' is easy," he reminded her. "I do know she is an orphan and she's probably had her power her whole life," he said. Artemis wasn't listening anymore, after finding out that she wasn't the only one that suspected Nightshade, she had more reasons to believe she was right about her. Nightshade had something to do with Nightfall and most likely she had something to do with The Light, otherwise why would her father be involved with her?

"Fine, let's stick to following her. I'll take tonight, you go home," she said cutting him off. Dick noticed that she hadn't heard when he told her that they should probably tell the rest of the team, so he decided to just go with it. He said goodbye and walked away from the bus stop leaving Artemis alone with her thoughts and her can of soda.


	12. Fear

The team was divided and assigned to three different recon missions in Gotham City, Coast City and Washington. There had been some unusual activity in those cities, so the League wanted someone that would look over the situation and identify any threats. Batman made sure to tell them that they should not interfere unless it was absolutely necessary. After giving them all a silent glare, he sent Miss Martian, Aqualad and Artemis to Coast City, Robin, Zatanna and Kid Flash to Gotham, and finally he sent Rocket, Superboy and Nightshade to Washington.

Coast City- July 24- 7:46 P.M-

Miss Martian, Aqualad and Artemis set themselves up on top of a building overlooking the central square of the city. So far everything seemed like a normal summer night in the city, people were walking around on the ground going in and out of the surrounding restaurants or stopping to chat in the square. It was not too crowded so people could walk around easily, creating a nice atmosphere.

"It smells so good," said Artemis looking down at one of the restaurants with her binoculars. Both Miss Martian and Aqualad turned to look at her, then she realized she had sounded just like Wally. "Uhh…his behavior is contagious," she said and went back to looking at the square. They all went silent after that, out of the three groups they were arguably the serious one since Nightshade and Kid Flash where on the other two. Sure, Robin also had his moments, but lately he had stopped making jokes and was only throwing quips every now and then.

"Guys, what do you think about the meeting in the Watchtower?" asked Miss Martian putting down her binoculars. Artemis wondered if now would be a good time to let them know what she had seen the other night, but then Aqualad started talking.

"I'm with Wonder Woman. Nightshade is obviously keeping a lot of things from us and until we figure out what, we need to keep an eye on her," he said. The silence returned and the three of them went back to their stakeout, meanwhile Artemis was debating the pros and cons of telling them. Pros: she could share what she saw with someone other than Robin, figuring out what to do would be easier if more people knew about it. Cons: they might not take it so well and do something rash, Nightshade could find out she saw her and she didn't know what to expect form that. Artemis kept thinking about it, until she finally decided on telling them; she got ready, put the binoculars down and started talking.

"I saw Nightshade talking with Nightfall," she said, "I don't know what she said, but it was definitely Nightfall," she finished talking getting wide-eyed stared from the other two. It took them a while to process the information they had received, but when they did and where about to say something, an explosion was heard down in the Square. The three of them jumped down from where they were and dove into the panicked crowd, the smoke made it hard for them to see where the explosion had come from. The three of them had split up looking for the source, Miss Martian was trying to help some people when one of them sprayed something on her face.

Miss Martian fell to the ground, it was getting hard to breathe and then the smoke started to slowly turn into a blazing fire that was trapping her in the middle of the Square. Miss Martian tried crying out for help, but her throat was closing and she was getting weaker by the second. Finally, she spotted a human silhouette and crawled her way towards it only to see that it was Superboy; he looked down at her and instead of helping her, he walked away. Miss Martian lost all of her strength and passed out in the middle of the fire that, as she lost consciousness, started fading into smoke.

Aqualad heard Miss Martian's muffled screams and made his way towards her, ignoring the huge crowd. He was getting closer when he felt some drops fall on his face. He turned around and found himself in Atlantis. Aqualad was confused at first, but then he completely forgot he wasn't supposed to be there and ventured into the lost city. He swam through the buildings until he bumped into Tula and Garth, they were holding hands but let go the moment they saw him. Aqualad felt a sharp pain in his chest, but put on a smile for them; the trio talked for a while before fire balls started dropping from the surface. The Atlanteans rushed through the water to their homes while the trio tried to keep them safe, but it was too much to handle. Buildings started dropping to the ocean floor, people were being crushed to death by the debris, but it wasn't until Tula was hit by one of the fire balls that Aqualad reacted. He swam towards her only to find that she was already gone, he heard a loud scream and saw Garth rushing towards them.

"What did you do?!" he asked intersecting the path of a fire ball that buried him on the ground. Aqualad let out a scream and then the vision of a destroyed Atlantis started looking blurry and faded. He waited for his eyes to adjust, but they never did because the next thing he saw was darkness.

Artemis heard Aqualad, but before she could move from where she was, she was sprayed in the face by one of the people that was passing by. She rubbed her eyes and when she opened them again, she was back in the cave, the team beaten on the ground and Sportsmaster and Cheshire on the other side of the room. Her father started clapping as he walked up to her, Artemis didn't understand until she looked at her reflection on the T.V. she was in fighting position.

"I guess it is genetic, the daughter of a criminal can be nothing more than a criminal," said Sportsmaster laying a hand on her shoulder. "Thanks for the help, baby girl," he said. Artemis fell to the ground, she stared at the team, but their faces started to get distorted until she wasn't able to see any facial features. She tried reaching out to them, but her hand was caught by Kid Flash.

"Is this why you told us to worry about Nightshade?" he asked. Artemis shook her head and crawled back as the team started getting up. "You betrayed us!" It was Wally's voice, but it wasn't coming from his mouth since he didn't have one. She kept backing away from them until she bumped into her sister who looked down at her and with a smile, kicked her on the side of the head.

Washington D.C.- July 24- 7:50 P.M-

Rocket, Superboy and Nightshade had split up to cover more ground from different angles, Nightshade had chosen to stay on the ground hiding in one of the alleys overlooking the Dupont Circle park, Superboy was among the crowd of the park and Rocket was standing on top one of the buildings that allowed her an aerial view of the whole thing. Their mission had complicated when they realized that a concert was going on in the park drawing in large crowds.

" _ **This is not good,"**_ said Rocket over the comm. Superboy tried to make his way through the pushing crowd in hopes of finding an emptier spot.

" _ **Try being down here,"**_ he said after an eager teen elbowed him in the face.

" _ **We can trade places, but only if Nightshade comes up here,"**_ said Rocket looking down at the alley where the girl was supposed to be. There was a long pause followed by a fake laugh coming from the girl that was leaning against a building wall.

" _ **Funny,"**_ said Nightshade poking her head out to check the situation, _**"Guys, I think we have a proble—,"**_ she started but the communication was cut off.

" _ **Nightshade? Nightshade are you there?"**_ asked Rocket, when she didn't answer both she and Superboy rushed to the alley where Nightshade said she was going to be. When they got there, they searched around for her, but she was nowhere to be seen.

" _Aww you do care,"_ __said Nightshade stepping out of the shadows. They finally understood why she had chosen that name, she was really good at hiding in the shadows. Rocket felt rage building up in her, and she ended up punching Nightshade in the stomach. "Okay, I deserve that one," she said holding her stomach and gasping for air. While they were doing that, they didn't notice that someone had walked up to them until they heard a can rolling their way. The three of them looked down at the ground just in time to watch it go off releasing a dark gray gas.

When the gas dispersed, Rocket found herself back in the roof with Superboy and Nightshade. She looked at them, but they had their backs turned on her and were looking up at the sky as if waiting for something or someone to show up. She got up from the ground and walked up to them when both Nightshade and Superboy shook her off.

"What are you doing?" she asked confused. Superboy turned to look down at her.

"What are _you_ doing? You don't work with us anymore and stop following us around it's getting annoying," he said just as Miss Martian's ship landed on the roof. The two of them started walking towards the ship, but Rocket grabbed Nightshade's hand forcing her to turn around. She stared coldly at her, and pulled her hand back.

"You are not needed anymore. You don't belong with the team, you don't belong anywhere," she told her and started walking to the ship where the others were waiting for her. Rocket started running towards the ship, but she felt that it was moving further away from her with every step she took. She watched helplessly as the people she thought were her friends, left her alone on that rooftop. Rocket tripped and fell on her face, but when she lifted her face she saw that everything was gone and the only thing that remained was darkness.

Superboy coughed as the gas dispersed, he tried to draw his hand to his mouth to cover it, but he couldn't move it. He looked down at his wrists and saw that he was strapped down, looked up to see he was back in a glass pod with his hands, feet and head strapped down limiting his movements. Superboy tried with all he had, but he couldn't break the binds. It wasn't until the door slid open that he stopped moving around; it was Lex Luthor looking directly at him with a smile on his face.

"I hope you enjoyed your time out, it's not going to happen again," he said and pressed a button on the control panel in front of him. "It's time to go to bed, Superboy," he finished talking. Superboy moved around desperately trying to fight the urge to fall asleep, but his eyes started to close slowly. He looked at Luthor who smiled as he lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep.

When Nightshade opened her eyes, she was confused and disoriented, but once she could focus she saw Rocket and Superboy knocked out next to her. She used the wall to get up and peek outside to see that everything was normal; the girl turned around to pick up the empty can on the ground to see if she could find out what it was, but when she bent over, the ground started to shake and crack. Nightshade fell to the floor and held onto the edge of the broken pavement as it flew up leaving the rest of the ground behind. She held on so tightly that her knuckles where turning white; the girl peeked down from her small piece of land and all she could see were the clouds floating underneath her.

"This can't be happening. It's impossible," she kept telling herself, but her mantra was interrupted when the piece of pavement she was standing on started crumbling. Nightshade spotted another one just a few feet away from her, she was sure she could jump that far, but her feet wouldn't move, he palms were sweaty and her breathing had increased. Pure fear was the thing she was feeling, she was afraid of falling. She stood there as the floor under her feet crumbled when she felt a hand land on her shoulder. Nightshade turned around to see a red head staring back at her. "What? Why are you here?"

"Come on Nightshade, I'm always here," she said moving forward, pushing her to the edge, "you can't get rid of me, after all I am you," she said. Nightshade stared back at her own face, the only difference was the red hair and the intense dark red eyes that made someone like Nightfall look terrifying. Those cold red eyes that were now staring back at her where the last thing she saw before Nightfall pushed her off the piece of pavement.

Gotham City- July 24- 7:55 P.M-

Robin, Zatanna and Kid Flash where hiding in one of the classrooms of Gotham University, they were looking out the window directly to the middle of the campus where a fair was going on. They had booths and a small ferris wheel, they even had fireworks ready for the grand finale of the fair. Kid Flash was focused on the food stands and the cotton candy that was being sold next to the mirror maze, he was sure that he could rush down there and get some without anyone noticing, but when he saw how serious Zatanna and Robin were, he lost interest.

"Have you heard from them?" asked Robin putting down his binoculars. It had been a while and neither one of the other two groups had reported back or bothered to check up on them.

"No, they are probably just as busy as we are," said Zatanna looking down at the large crowd. "Hey guys, I think I see something down there," she said pointing at the Ferris wheel. The other two poked their heads out the window and saw a darkened figure making its way past the Ferris wheel and into the mirror maze. The three of them nodded and blended with the crowd to make it into the maze without being spotted. They quickly went into the mirror maze and closed it behind them so no one would be able to get in or out.

The three of them walked around carefully listening to every sound that was coming from inside, but everything was eerily quiet. It wasn't until a few minutes later that they heard a voice coming from the speakers in the maze that were supposed to be playing music. "Today, you kids will have the honor of being part of my latest masterpiece," said the high-pitched voice as The Riddler's face was projected in a screen that had fallen in front one of the mirrors. "You nine are just what I needed to start my test run before I try it on Batman!" he said and then his eyes landed on Robin and he flashed a smile before a gas filled the room.

"Run!" said Robin covering his mouth and nose with his cape, and the three of them darted off into the maze.

Zatanna started feeling lightheaded, her hands where shaking and she was having trouble breathing, so she leaned on one of the mirrors to support herself while taking a few deep breaths. Once she was able to move, she kept her hand on the wall and walked around trying to find the exit, but all she found was the main room in the hall. She looked at herself in one of them and was shocked to see her father standing behind her; Zatanna rubbed her eyes and when she looked again, there was only her reflection.

"What the hell?" she asked under her breath. The girl got ready to keep walking when she saw that her father was reflected in every mirror of the tiny room. She finally let go of the wall and fell on her face when she tried to reach out for him. Her father reflection now appeared in just one mirror, but in his hands he now held the helmet of fate. Unable to move, all she could do was lay there and watch him slowly lower the helmet onto his head.

"No, not again! I don't want to lose you again!" she said getting up from the ground and rushing to the mirror directly in front of her and just as she was about to reach it, another reflection grabbed her and started pulling her into the mirror. Zatanna struggled to break free, but she wasn't able to escape.

Kid Flash started coughing, trying to run away from the gas that had spread through the maze, but he didn't go far since he crashed into one of the mirrors, breaking it. Kid Flash fell over to the other side of the glass and landed on the soft snow. "What the hell?" he asked out loud, just a second ago he was in a mirror maze in a hot summer night, and now he stood in the middle of a snowy road. He felt an extra weight in his back and saw a blonde strand of hair fall over his shoulder; he looked over his shoulder and realized Artemis was on his back, unconscious. Not only that, but he could also see an open wound in her chest, a wound big enough to be fatal.

"KF, what are you doing? Take her to the hospital, go!" yelled Robin who was fighting Sportsmaster and Cheshire with the rest of the team. Kid Flash looked up and started running down the road, he didn't really know where the hospital was, but he just let his feet take him. After a few seconds, he finally saw a sign that said a hospital was a hundred miles away. Just then, Artemis started moving and panting painfully. "Don't worry babe, we'll be there in just a few seconds," he told her trying to speed up, but instead he started going slower. Kid Flash didn't understand what was going on, he kept trying, but every time he did, his speed would go down.

With just five miles left to get to the hospital, Kid Flash tripped over the snow and fell face first; Artemis's body rolled over a few feet away from him. He quickly got up, but his steps felt heavy and he felt as if he was doing everything in slow motion, a minute had passed and he hadn't even taken two steps. Artemis felt further away, he could see her life being drained from her body with every step he took. Kid Flash wanted to go faster, he wanted to take her to the hospital, but his body wouldn't react.

"Artemis!" he yelled right before he tripped again next to Artemis' body. "I can do it, I can still get you there," he said, but getting up from the ground proved to be impossible, so all he could do was grab her now cold hand.

Robin stopped running when he found himself in another big chamber full of mirrors, he didn't remember which side he had come from or which way he should head next. All he could see was his image in every single one of the mirrors, he stared for a while until they started shifting. In one of the mirrors he saw his four-year-old self in a small overall, in the next mirror he saw himself when he was eight years old and had just joined his parents in their circus act, next was the first time he wore his Robin costume and on the other mirror he just saw his reflection.

"Wait? What comes next?" he said placing his hand over the mirror that had no reflection. "Is this it? I'm going to be Robin forever?" he asked. His heart started racing, sure he didn't want to be Batman, but he didn't want to be Robin for the rest of his life either.

"You think you can do anything else?" asked a familiar voice coming from behind him. In another one of the mirrors was Aqualad looking right at him. "Why do you think I'm still the team leader, you are not fit for anything else," he said.

"He's right Rob, you're not good enough, not even for Batman," said Kid Flash form another mirror. Robin started backing away from them, he suddenly remembered what had happened before, this was all because of the fear gas. None of this was actually happening, they didn't think that.

"Maybe they don't, but you do. Otherwise why else would we be here, Bird Brain?" asked Nightshade in the mirror right behind him. She gave him a smirk and continued talking, "admit it, you're stuck. Batman doesn't even trust you with anything important, he might even replace you one day," she said and the reflections started laughing.

"You're wrong, you all are wrong," he said looking at the three of them.

"No, they are not," said Batman. Each one of the reflections went quiet, "you've reach your limit, you won't improve. You're not good enough and you never will be," he said. Robin's horrified look was met with hysterical laughter coming from each one of the reflections. He fell to the ground, covering his ears to block away their mockery. Robin closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he saw The Riddler looking down at him.

"I have a little riddle for you Wonder Brat: I make you weak at the worst of all times. I keep you safe, I keep you fine. I make your hands sweat, and your heart grow cold, I visit the weak, but seldom the bold. What am I?" he asked. The answer was clear, but he didn't get a chance the answer because Riddler hit him on the side of the head with his cane, knocking him out. "Fear. The answer is fear," he said grabbing Robin's cape and dragging him across the floor towards the exit that was just a few steps away.


	13. Riddle Me This

Undisclosed location- 10:54 P.M-

"Ahh Wonder Brat, you're up. Don't worry your friends are fine, but just like you two, they will need to solve my riddles to get out of the room they're in. Doesn't that sound fun?" The Riddler's voice bounced off the walls of the room. Robin was still a little groggy and he couldn't focus his eyes, so he couldn't see the whole room. "Ahh right, let me give you a few minutes to compose yourself. I always forget that the fear toxin really takes a toll on you, but it also helps you find out a little bit more about yourself, doesn't it?" he asked letting out an annoying laugh that made Robin's head throb. His eyesight cleared and he was finally able to see the room where he stood; it was a dirty run down room with no windows, just a heavy metal door. The room had a few wooden crates and two platforms that almost reached the roof of the room. They looked hard to climb and The Riddler had taken Robin's belt so he didn't have his grappling hook.

He kept examining the room when he heard a loud groan coming from behind him. "This might be a little sudden, but I need you to have a handicap…I apologize in advance if it kills you," The Riddler stopped talking. When he turned around, he saw a shaking Nightshade curled up in the corner of the room. She had her knees on her chest and was muttering something to herself while trying to stay within a small piece of tile. Robin walked up to her and when she noticed him, she tried to go deeper into the corner.

"No, you can't be here, not again! Stay away from me!" she yelled. Robin tried to approach her again, but she just jumped at him and started attacking him. "What do you want?" she asked while Robin dodged her punches.

"Nightshade, it's me!" he said, but he knew it wasn't getting through. Scarecrow's fear toxin blocked all the other senses. His only option was to keep fighting her until it wore off, but he didn't know how long that would take, or if he would be able to do it. Nightshade kept attacking him and he kept dodging the hits or blocking them since he didn't want to hurt her. "Nightshade come on, who do you think I am?" he asked just before he received a punch in the stomach. Robin fell to the ground holding his abdomen when the girl kicked him in the face and he fell on his back; she sat on top of him to hit his face, but Robin grabbed her fist. "I really didn't want to do this," he said before punching her across the face and then kicking her off him.

Nightshade got up from the ground quickly and returned the hit only to have Robin block it. He then kicked her on the side and pushed her further away from him. Nightshade ran up to him with her sword and tried to stab him, but Robin moved away and she ended up stabbing the wall. While she tried to pull it out of the wall, Robin kicked her in the back and pushed her against the wall, Nightshade's head bounced of the wall leaving her unconscious.

"Well that was short lived," The Riddler's voice returned over the speakers in the room.

"What do you want, Riddler?" asked Robin kneeling next to Nightshade.

"I told you, I'm just testing this out. Do you think Batman will like it?" he asked.

"He won't get to see it," said Nightshade, she groaned in pain and rubbed the back of her head. "Do I have to apologize for anything?" she asked looking up at Robin. He shook his head and reached out to help her back on her feet.

"Are you alright?" he reached out to grab her arm, but she pulled away before he could even touch it.

"Don't touch me," she said using the wall to get up from the ground. Nightshade could still feel her hands shaking, but she took a few deep breaths to help her calm down. Once she was more stable, she looked up to the two platforms next to them. "Do we have to climb that?" she asked, pointing at them. Robin nodded and all hope vanished from her face. He placed a hand on her shoulder right before he started to climb the one on the far side of the room, leaving her with the one right in front of her. Nightshade looked up to the tall platform and stretched out her hand to grab one of the pipes that ran across form it. She slowly started climbing it, making sure not to look down yet her hands were still shaking. She looked to see how much she had left to climb and for a second she could have sworn the platform stretched further up, but then it was back to normal.

"How are you doing?" asked Robin who was already at the top.

"Fine, just some leftover fear toxin," she told him climbing up the last bit. When she stepped onto the platform, she saw that it was divided by a large fence that reached the roof and on her side, she could see some numbers scribbled with green paint on a board. On the ground, each one of them had switches that were turned on and had a big bright green question mark on them. On his side, Robin had the same thing. The board didn't let them see each other's numbers.

"What is this? A hero with a crippling fear of heights?" asked the Riddler before letting out another laugh, "this is interesting," he said.

"It's not crippling," robin cleared up.

"I'm not a hero," said Nightshade and then she turned to look at Robin, "and it kind of is crippling to be honest," she said shrugging. "what are we supposed to do with this?" she asked walking towards the first switch since the first number on her board was 1. Robin examined the room and the switches that were in front of him and that was when he noticed the color of the numbers.

"Nightshade wait!" he said just as the girl stepped on the switch. When she did, a wooden post with an ax blade came swinging down. Nightshade managed to move out of the way, but it made its way back and she was forced to roll all the way to the edge of the platform. Robin waited for her to come back up, and let out a sigh of relieve when she finally did. "You Okay?!" he yelled when he saw her push herself forward.

"Define okay," she said.

"Why are you in such a hurry? This is why I hate kids, they're always so rushed, never look at anything closely," said Riddler. Robin stared at the numbers on his board for a few seconds.

"These are pink numbers. Are there any numbers on your side?" he asked. Nightshade looked at the board and nodded. "what's the first one?" he asked.

"Blue for guys and pink for girls? Seriously? Could that be any more stereotyping? The first is one," she answered. Robin walked up to the first switch on his side and reluctantly stepped on it. Both he and Nightshade waited for something to happen, but when the switch turned black he let out a sigh. "Okay, what's my number?" she asked.

"Four," he said. Nightshade walked to the fourth switch and stepped on it. The switch tuned black. They continued doing that for the next four numbers left on their boards and when Nightshade stepped on the last one, the metal gate on the ground opened. The two teens headed down, of course Robin had to wait for Nightshade to get down from the platform and walked through the door that closed behind them. This room was smaller, but it also had a door on the far wall to the right. Robin examined the room that was decorated with green light and the same green paint had a riddle scribbled on the wall. "Great, another one," he said looking up at the riddle.

"as destructive as life, as healing as death; an institutioner of strife, just as prone to bless. It is all that is good, yet with an evil trend; as it was the beginning of things, it can also be the end," (fire) read Nightshade. She focused her gaze on the glowing green writing, forgetting about Robin for a minute. He, on the other hand, turned to look at her face.

"Nightshade, what did you see with the fear toxin?" he asked while she was trying to decipher the riddle written on the wall. He walked closer to her and turned her around so she was now facing him. "Come on tell me, you looked genuinely distressed. I just want to help," he insisted. Robin paused for a few seconds to look at the back of her head. "Did it have anything to do with Nightfall?"

Nightshade stopped moving, after hearing that name she slowly turned around to face him. "What did you just say?" she asked.

"It did, didn't it?" he asked. "If you have anything to do with Nightfall you have to tell us, because she's dangerous and—," he said, but instead of letting him finish what he was about to say, she grabbed his face and pulled him closer to her until her mouth touched his. He was surprised at first, but he didn't pull back, instead he started kissing her back until Nightshade was the one that pushed away.

"Why?" asked Robin.

"You talk too much," she said the first thing that came to mind before turning back to the riddle.

"This topic is not over, but what about your scary boyfriend?" he asked.

"Not my boyfriend," she said, "now shut up before I do something more painful," she said, but inside she was screaming. Why would she kiss him? Had she finally lost it? She kept wondering forgetting about the riddle.

Meanwhile, Artemis, Kid Flash and Superboy woke up with their hands tied behind their back, the two of them sat in the middle of a slightly flooded room with the water up to their ankles. Kid Flash vibrated his hand and released himself from the rope only to have a nose bleed right after. "Oh man. Every time!" he said before turning around to check on the other two; Superboy had managed to break the ropes and was now untying Artemis.

"Hello children," said The Riddler, his face being projected in one of the walls of the room. The three of them turned to look at the image of the smiling man. Robin had told them about him after their encounter in the Smokey Mountains, he had told them about Riddler's need to use riddles in every one of his attacks, but they never knew it would be so over the top. "I want to play a tiny game with you, though I'll have to admit it was hard to adapt this to your varied…abilities. Anyway, all you must do is solve my simple riddle and you'll be on your way out, so why don't we begin? Alive without breath, as cold as death; never thirsty, ever drinking, all in mail never clinking. What am I?" he said. The image disappeared leaving the three of them alone in the room.

"Does he really think we're going to play his game?" Asked Superboy.

"We have to if we want to get out of here," Kid Flash reminded him. Artemis placed a hand on her chin and thought about the riddle, she had heard it somewhere but she just couldn't quite remember where. "Okay, so it's alive without breath…is that even possible?" he asked.

"Maybe it's something in this room," said Superboy, so he and Kid Flash started looking around the room for any clue, but the place was completely empty except for the closed door.

"Babe, a little help here," he said looking back at Artemis who had stayed in the middle of the room.

"Fish!" she yelled suddenly remembering she had seen the riddle in the back of a cereal box. As soon as she said that, the floor started shifting, the three of them were separated and each was placed in a different corner of the room. The floor opened up and revealed a large tank of water infested with what looked like piranhas and a shark. There were still some floor tiles remaining in the tank, but they looked unstable, only one person would be able to stand on them at a time or it would tip over. The only places that looked stable where the ones they were standing on and the one in the middle. The good news was that the door had opened, so all they had to do was get across…easier said than done.

Kid Flash was the first one to step on the tile in front of him. It moved a little, but then stopped. The others did the same thing, just five more tiles to go to get to the center tile. "Okay, watch your step, these things are really slippery," said Kid Flash. He considered using his speed to just pass through, but that might make everything more unstable than it already was. Kid Flash and Superboy finally made it to the center, but when Artemis was just about to get to the tile, the one she was standing on slipped. Artemis jumped to the big tile and grabbed the edge before quickly getting on top.

"Wow, that was intense," she said. "Now what?" she asked. There was only one path to the exit and the pieces looked weak.

"Now we make it to the other side as fast as we can," said Kid Flash picking up Artemis. "Superboy you go first, we'll follow," he said. Superboy nodded and ran across the tiles trying to not tip them over with every step he took. Kid Flash quickly went behind him and the trio finally made it to the other side of the door.

Zatanna and Aqualad woke up in a room without doors or windows, just a huge sculpture in the center and a big light shining down on it. Zatanna tried to regain some strength while Aqualad was just getting up from the ground. A laughter interrupted them and forced their attention towards the face projected on one of the walls. "How are you feeling? A little groggy?" asked The Riddler, his question was met by silence and glares from the two teens. "Geez, lighten up a little, will you? Anyway, you're going to have to play if you want to get out," he told them.

"Just get to the point, we have other things to worry about," said Aqualad looking directly at him. He was a bit taken a back at first, but his surprise was soon replaced with a smile.

"Fine, if you want to get out, you'll need to solve my riddle. Each morning I appear to lie at your feet, all day I will follow no matter how fast you run, yet I nearly perish in the midday sun, what am I?" he asked and his face faded out. Aqualad and Zatanna looked at each other unsure of what to do with that riddle. Aqualad kept examining the room, when his eyes landed on the sculpture in the middle, why put it there if it didn't have anything to do with the riddle? He wondered while walking up to it. He looked at it closely, every detail, every bump, but nothing came to mind.

Zatanna remained behind him, she watched Aqualad walked to the sculpture and just as he stepped under the light, she got an idea. "I appear to lie at your feet," she said, "the answer is a shadow," she said. As soon as she spoke, she three switches appeared from the ground and The Riddler's voice returned through the speakers.

"Good job, now all you have to do is fix the statue and shine it in the right place, but you better be quick or your friends will have to get a shovel to pull you out," he said. A large hatch opened and dirt started falling from it.

"He's going to burry us," said Aqualad hurrying towards the switches. Zatanna joined him on the left switch leaving him the middle and the right one to operate. He tried pressing the right one once and the light in the ceiling changed angle, he then pressed the middle one and the bottom part of the sculpture shifted, but another hatch opened and more dirt started pouring in. Zatanna then pressed the left button and the top shifted. The shadow that was being projected onto the wall was all jumbled up, but they could make out what it was supposed to be, a question mark. Aqualad pressed the middle button one more time and the bottom of the question mark appeared, but the dirt now reached their knees. Zatanna figured she would have to press the button twice to get the top of the question mark, and when the shadow was finally right…. Nothing happened.

"What the hell?" asked Zatanna. "Maybe it's not in the right place," she reminded Aqualad who pressed the left button and the light shifted causing the shadow to be projected onto another wall, but still nothing happened. He pressed it again and as soon as the shadow hit the wall, a door emerged right there. With dirt now up to their hips, the two of them made their way towards the door that opened as soon as they got close and took them and the dirt out of the room.

"Good morning ladies," said Riddler, his face projected on one of the walls. Miss Martian and Rocket found themselves in a room similar to the other rooms. They felt tired and confused, having just woken up and feeling the secondary effects of the fear toxin. "If you want to get out, you're going to have to go along with me for a bit. Now, shall we get started with the riddle?" he asked. Both of them glared at him. "I'm going to take that as a yes. An arm points north, east, south, then west. Ever in circles, never pausing to rest. It passes its brother twenty-three times, as the sun passes by and the moon starts to climb. What am I?"

Miss Martian looked back at Rocket, who smiled "a clock. Why don't you make it a harder one the next time," said Rocket looking up at Riddler. He smiled just as the floor opened under their feet and revealed a giant clock with the key to get out of the room hanging from the hour hand.

"Like this?" he asked. "The key will only come out until the clock is giving the right time," he explained and then vanished from the wall.

Miss Martian turned to look at Rocket. "You just had to say something. I think you're hanging out with Nightshade way too much," said Miss Martian letting out a sigh. "Now how do we get that key out?" she asked looking at the giant clock right in front of her. She was trying to find something that could tell her how to move the clock, but when she couldn't find anything, she tried using her powers to move it, but when she tried she an electric current came out of the clock and struck her.

"No, no, that's cheating," they heard Riddler's voice bounce off the walls. Both girls turned their attention back to the clock and a table that emerged from the ground with four ceramic pieces with numbers on them. "Arrange the pieces in the right order and you'll get the right time," he said. The two girls took a look at the pieces, they had nothing that could help them identify the order of the numbers until Miss Martian noticed some markings on the edges of the pieces. She took the pieces and started arraging them so that the marking would match with the next piece and finally she got 15:09.

"First let's move the hour hand," said Rocket, Miss Martian tried to fly, but was once again shot down by the electricity current, so she climbed onto Rocket's shoulders and started moving the hand until it was just over the three. Rocket then moved slightly to the left and Miss Martian grabbed the other hand and started moving it to just a little bit before the two. As soon as the clock marked the time, the case opened and the key fell out. Rocket and Miss Martian waited for another comment from the Riddler, but when he didn't say anything, they used the key to get out of the room.

The four of groups met in the next room, though Robin had to push Nightshade out of the way to avoid Kid Flash and Artemis and then they all had to move to avoid the dirt that came out of Aqualad and Zatanna's room. Robin let go of Nightshade when he realized how close they were, considering what happened.

"You guys alright?" asked Robin looking up at them.

"Aw how sweet, Wonder Brat worrying about his friends," said The Riddler after his face popped up on a wall. "Well, now that you are all together, let's see how you handle this," he said and three doors popped up in the room. Each one of them had a different shape drawn on it, the first one had a diamond, the middle one a water drop and the last one had a cube. "The final riddle will guide you to the exit, so you better think hard about this one. A precious stone, as clear as diamond. Seek it out whilst the sun's near the horizon. Though you can walk on water with its power, try to keep it, and it'll vanish ere an hour, what am I?" he asked right as another door in the back opened and a fleet of robotic guards walked out.

"Robots?" asked Artemis reaching out for an arrow, forgetting that Riddler took her bow and arrow.

"What? Were actual people more expensive?" asked Nightshade remembering the same thing after she tried to reach out for her guns.

"Well, why hire help when you can just build it," he answered and the robots started attacking them. Robin, Rocket, Artemis and Nightshade found themselves at a disadvantage without being able to use their weapons and gadgets, and since they didn't know about her powers, Nightshade couldn't use them. Kid Flash breezed through the crowd of robots taking them down as he passed, but they kept increasing in number. Miss Martian and Zatanna took care of a big chunk of robots with Aqualad and Superboy doing the same on the other side. Artemis and Robin helped each other out to fight their way through while Nightshade and Rocket covered them.

"Robin, what about the riddle?" asked Zatanna. He looked at the back of the room, Nightshade and Rocket were closer to the doors.

"Nightshade! It's the door on the left, the answer is ice," he yelled across the room. the girl looked at the door, on the left was the exit, but did they really wanted to get out without the Riddler or their things? She wondered. One of the robots crossed her path, so the girl kicked him in the chest pushing him against the wall before kicking him again damaging its central core. Nightshade was about to move on, when she heard a loud thud coming from behind her, she turned around to see that Superboy had tackled a robot that was about to attack her. Nightshade's attention went back to the doors, and instead of going for the door with the cube, she went for the one with the water drop. "What are you doing?" asked Robin watching her disappear through the door.

"Well, I must admit a very small part of me is impressed," said Riddler from his chair, his back turned on Nightshade who had just walked in. Across from her, sat the Riddler with a table full of monitors showing each one of the rooms, and to his left was another table with their weapons, and devices that he had taken from them.

"Well then I'm about to blow your mind," she said lighting her fist on fire and placing it in front of his face while grabbing his collar with the other. "Literally," she said. The Riddler swallowed and looked straight into her mask.

"Before you do that, I have a little something someone asked me to give you," he said handing her a piece of paper. Nightshade looked at it before taking it, she examined it carefully, her eyes widening when she turned it around and saw a photograph of Camille with her hands tied above her head over the picture, written inneat handwritten was a single sentence: 'Bring it back and you can have her' it read. The Riddler smiled at her distressed face and took the opportunity to move away from her, "He also wanted to know if you liked the flowers," Nightshade punched him across the face, knocking him out of the chair. She stepped on his chest to make sure he would stay down and grabbed Robin's belt; she pressed one of the compartments and pulled out a USB.

"And to think you had it with you the whole time," she said while The Riddler struggled to get up. She put it back in the belt, "Can't take it now though," she said picking up her ear piece from the table.

" _ **Nightshade? Good you're alive,"**_ said Lance, _**"While the communicator was there, I managed to scan the place, to deactivate the robots press the button on the right, the blue one,"**_ he told her. Nightshade pressed the button and the robots on the screen immediately went limp. The first one to walk in was Rocket who was closer to the door, followed by Robin who had rushed there. Nightshade threw them their belts before putting on her own and taking her guns and sword, she handed them Artemis' quiver and bow and Aqualad's water-bearers before walking away from the room and towards the exit without saying a single word. Superboy took Riddler while the others got ready to leave. Robin left to go after Nightshade, but when he ran out the door she was nowhere to be seen.


	14. Psimon Says

Midway City- August 14- 11:45 P.M-

Nightshade and Red Shot had just finished scouring through the basement of an office building that belonged to LexCorp, they were looking for anything that could tell them where they were keeping Camille, but they couldn't find anything useful. Among them laid a few dead guards and some other LexCorp workers. "We wouldn't have to do this if you had taken the USB from Robin's belt," said Red Shot slamming shut one of the drawers, "you had two chances to do it and you actually had it in your hands once," he reminded her.

"Would you calm down? I couldn't take it without a plan," answered Nightshade, "and what do you mean two chances? The only time I got that close to the belt was in Riddler's office."

"Oh right, I guess that kissing is a long-distance thing," he said scanning some files that sat on a desk. Nightshade stopped searching and looked up at him, he was staring back at her with a serious look on his face. He must have hacked into the cameras of the warehouse, thought Nightshade.

"He was talking too much," she said going back to the file she was reading.

"No, he made you remember unpleasant things and you just wanted a distraction," he told her walking up to her. When Nightshade looked up again, Lance was right in front of her. "I'm a pretty good distraction too, you know?" he said and leaned down to kiss her. Nightshade sank into the longer kiss, his hands found their way to her hips and he pressed her body harder against his. He was right, the only thing she could think about in that moment was him and how his hands made their way under her shirt. The kiss would have lasted longer if Nightshade's communicator hadn't started beeping, they both pulled back and stared at each other before she answered the call.

Mount Justice- 12:30 A.M-

The team was short on people after Artemis, Aqualad, Miss Martian, Rocket and Superboy had been selected for another mission leaving Nightshade, Robin, Zatanna and Kid Flash for another mission in Coast City. As they were being briefed for the mission by Red Tornado, the Z tube announced a code they hadn't heard before followed by a familiar name with a small twist in the end. The four of them turned around to see a red-head in a cowl walking up to them.

"Batgirl made a special request to join you for this mission," he explained, "keep in mind she is very capable," the red-head waved and examined their reactions, Robin kept his cool but still flashed her a friendly smile, Kid Flash and Miss Martian looked exited, and Nightshade just seemed uninterested.

"If that's how this works, then can I make a special request to be excluded from this mission?" Asked Nightshade in a clearly irritated tone.

"Batman has to approve this sort of issues," answered Red Tornado. Nightshade let out a sigh and crossed her arms over her chest for the rest of the briefing. After that Batgirl thought it would be a good time to introduce herself to the rest of the team.

"I'm Batgirl, Robin and I work with Batman in Gotham and I just thought I would drop by to see how the team was like. Looks like I picked the wrong mission to join," she said seeing how only half of the team was there. After that she walked up to Miss Martian and Kid Flash who cheerfully guided her to the ship, with Robin and Nightshade walking closely behind. Both Kid Flash and Miss Martian walked into the ship and Batgirl waited outside for Robin and Nightshade.

The black-haired girl walked inside first ignoring the greeting Batgirl was giving her and just answered with a cold and simple: "I don't care," before getting on the ship. Robin walked up behind her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, it's nothing personal she's just like that," he said.

"Rude?" Asked Batgirl looking at him.

"Basically," he answered and both of them laughed, "it's good to see you again Babs," he said.

"Yeah, it really has been a while," she answered giving him a smile.

"Umm guys, I don't mean to interrupt, but we really have to leave now," said Kid Flash poking his head out the ship. The two of them got into the ship and sat on the seats on the right since Nightshade had sat down on the back and Kid Flash in front of her, all so she could stay away from the windows only to fall asleep a few seconds later.

Coast City, Ferris Aircrafts-2:50 A.M-

'How can she sleep on the ground like that?" asked Kid Flash as he, Zatanna, Nightshade, Batgirl and Robin sat on the rooftop of Ferris Aircrafts. Robin looked back at Nightshade who was laying on the ground with the hood of her jacket covering her face. He hadn't tried to wake her up, after all they had been called in so early in the morning for a stake out in another city that was really far away from New York. "I mean really, isn't she kind of cold?" he kept going on while he made his way towards her and started poking her on the side until Nightshade grabbed him and pulled him down.

"Kid Flash, I haven't been sleeping well lately; now if you keep this up I will cut your throat and dump you into that river," she said and pushed him back making him fall on his butt. Kid Flash swallowed and grabbed his throat, covering it from Nightshade. Meanwhile, Robin, Batgirl and Zatanna were focused on scanning the area that was being heavily guarded, though they didn't know why. Kid Flash poke Nightshade once more before she stood up, pulled out a knife and pushed him against the ground pressing the knife against his throat.

"Guys, I don't think she is kidding. Hey, a little help here!" he kept pleading until Zatanna shut him up.

"You two stay quiet or they will know we're here," said Zatanna turning around to glare at the two of them. Nightshade let go of Kid Flash and put the knife away, allowing him some room to take a few deep breaths.

"I see something," said Batgirl and pointed towards the flashes of light coming from one of the hangars. "I think Robin and I can sneak in without being noticed, so while we do that you three take care of the guards outside," said Batgirl. Robin, Kid Flash, Zatanna and Nightshade looked at each other and then back at her.

"Yeah, how about no?" said Nightshade keeping her distance from the ledge.

"I can take care of the guards on the left side, they seem a little distracted. Batgirl can take the right one, Zatanna can sneak behind the guys down here, I'm sure Kid Flash can find a way to tell us how many guards are on the inside of these two hangars, and Nightshade will provide support from the roof. You have the rubber bullets, right?" asked Robin. Nightshade checked her gun and nodded. Kid Flash put on his goggles that allowed him to read the thermal signatures of the people inside. He counted 20 in each building. Nightshade kneeled down next to the ledge and carefully placed her gun over it. "You'll be okay?" asked Robin.

"Just go," she said steadying her trembling hand. Zatanna took care of the guards in front of the hangar first. She cast a spell that released a thick smoke screen, allowing Kid Flash to just swing by and knock them all out. Batgirl took advantage of the smoke screen and started taking out the guards that had separated themselves form the hangar. She sneaked behind one of them and hit him in the back of the head to knock him out, she then quietly went for the next one that she grabbed and pulled him behind the bushes. She was distracted with him when she heard a loud thud coming from behind her; she turned around and found a knocked-out guard with a deep red spot on his forehead. She looked up and saw Nightshade waiving at her right before shooting down another guard leaving her with just one more to take care of.

On the other side, Robin and Kid Flash were working on taking out the guards. They were a little bit more than they had estimated, but they hadn't been spotted yet. Kid Flash was taking them one by one and dragging them far away before knocking them out while Robin would just sneak up behind them and immobilize them. Once they were done, Robin looked up to where Nightshade was supposed to be, and when he didn't see her there, he panicked until they heard the door of the hangar open.

"Looking for me?" she asked letting them in.

"How did you—?" asked Kid Flash, but Nightshade interrupted him.

"The name Nightshade is not just because I thought it sounded nice," she said and led them down the hall filled with guards lying face down on the ground. Robin knelt down to check the pulse of one of the guards. "Relax, they're alive," she said walking ahead of them to an empty room at the end of the hall.

"Just wanted to make sure," he said. Batgirl glanced at Nightshade and then at the guards on the ground, before stopping Robin from following Nightshade.

"Does that happen often?" she asked.

"More than you think," answered Kid Flash just as he walked by them. Robin and Batgirl followed behind Kid Flash and Zatanna. When they walked in, they found the room completely empty except for a few boxes and some duffle bags that were piled up against the walls. "What are we doing here?" asked Kid Flash looking around the room trying to figure out if they had figured out something he hadn't, but then he noticed that the others looked just as confused as he did.

"When I came in I saw some guards coming out of this room, but the only way is through the front door," she explained staring at the wall right behind her. "There must be some sort of secret entrance or something," she continued running her hand over the wall. While she inspected that wall, Batgirl noticed a draft coming from the opposite corner of the room; she walked towards that side and ran her hands along the ground until she felt a loose tile. She gently pressed it and the wall opened in the middle.

"Found it," she said.

"Alright!" said Kid Flash rushing past her and into the tight hallway.

"She beat you to it," Robin teased Nightshade.

"Shut up," answered Nightshade. Zatanna ran after Kid Flash and just when Batgirl was going to go through, Nightshade bumped her shoulder and passed her by turning to look at her for a second before looking up ahead. Even though Batgirl couldn't see her eyes, she knew Nightshade was glaring at her under the mask. Robin placed a hand on her shoulder and let her go in first before stepping into the hall right behind her.

"Why go through so much trouble? What are they trying to hide?" asked Zatanna as she glanced around the hall. It was illuminated by large lamps hanging from the ceiling, but aside from those there was nothing else in the long hall. They finally got to the other side and carefully stepped out, the group examined the room that was nearly identical to the one they had just been on, except for the presence of guards off in the distance. Robin hid behind one of the crates, he then pulled out some smoke pellets from his belt and threw them their way. The smoke pellets opened and released a thick layer of smoke that filled the room allowing him and Batgirl to take the guards down.

The two of them moved swiftly through the room, taking down the guards with just a couple of moves. Batgirl got ready to kick one of the guards and got a boost from Robin to be able to kick two of them right in the head. Their movements seemed to be so in-sync that they didn't even have to talk to each other to know what they were going to do. Honestly, it was rather entertaining to watch. Once they were done, the rest of the group walked out from behind the crates and towards the couple who were now standing by the door at the end of the room.

"Let's find out what they're hiding behind door number 1," said Robin opening the door to the next room. Once he did, they saw a large group of guards standing on the other side. When they saw them, they dropped everything they had been doing and launched an attack. The group split up across the room with the intention of taking out as many guards as possible. Nightshade ended up on the far side of the room, she was using the back of her sword to hit them without really hurting them, but the process was long and boring. One of the guards hit her in the back and in the direction of another one of the guards who kicked her in the stomach.

"Okay that's it," she said and twirled the sword with her fingers. When the first guard approached her, she slashed his chest with the sword and then ran it through the second guard's chest when he was getting close to her. Batgirl watched the particular scene from the side just as she was dealing with her own share of guards, she couldn't help but wince when the sword went through a third guard and then another one. One of the guards tried to hit Batgirl, but she jumped and kicked him across the face and used him to jump onto another guard and bring him to the ground. This time it was Nightshade's turn to watch Batgirl swiftly kick and punch her way through. "Not bad," she said.

"I would say the same, but you just killed a bunch of people," answered Batgirl. When the team floor was clean of conscious guards, they gathered around the pile of dead guards Nightshade had created, blood was dripping from their wounds and their empty stares were more than unsettling.

"I take it back," said Nightshade turning to look at Robin who glared at her. "What? They were getting annoying," she said going after him. Zatanna and Kid Flash looked at each other, ever since that mission with the Riddler, Robin and Nightshade had been unusually close. Everyone in the team was starting to notice that something had definitely happened between them, it was just that no one dared to ask. The other three followed them through another hall that lead to a dead end; they assumed there was another secret door so they started searching around for it, but it wasn't until Batgirl stepped on a loose tile that a hatch opened and the group fell through.

"Found it," she said rubbing her back.

"Yeah, my ass noticed," said Nightshade getting up from the ground. Batgirl glared at her, but decided not to answer back, at least one of them had to be the level headed one. Once they were able to stand up they examined the room, it looked like an underground hangar, but it was empty except for an incredible number of screens that showed every corner of the facility. The group started looking around the room, Robin got busy with the screens, Kid Flash run around to make sure there was no one else in the room, while the others just checked if there was another secret passage except for Nightshade who had decided to lean against the wall and sleep instead of working. She gave them one last look before sliding down against the wall and placing the hoodie over her head.

It wasn't until a creaking sound startled them, the door of the hangar opened and Psimon walked inside with a solemn air around him. He looked around the room and examined each one of them including Nightshade that still sat down on the floor sleeping. "Are you done prying into my business?" he asked and walked up to the team, a piece of the roof came flying in their direction but Zatanna used a spell to intercept it and it broke down the middle. Psimon turned to face her, but instead of trying anything he smiled and suddenly things started to float around the room. Some went in Batgirl's direction, but she moved out of the way, others flew towards Nightshade and landed right next to her who was still sleeping. She got up from the ground and removed her hood; the girl walked towards Psimon, dodging the incoming debris. Meanwhile Zatanna was casting spells to deflect or destroy the pieces but more kept coming her way so Kid Flash grabbed her and moved her out of the way.

Robin still found himself hacking on the computer to see if it could give him any information on what Psimon was doing in a place like that. "Good luck trying to find anything, this is not your average security system," he said and sent a rock flying towards Robin, but he managed to move out of the way. Batgirl prepared and batarang and just as she threw it, Nightshade attacked Psimon. "I knew you would do that," he said and redirected it towards Nightshade and stuck it in her leg making her scream in pain. Without thinking it twice she pulled it out of her leg and threw it away; the bloody batarang landed next to Robin who watched as she limped towards Psimon. Nightshade had never fought him so she probably didn't know that Psimon could read their minds and their movements, so anything she was about to try he already knew. She kept trying to hit him, but every time Psimon counterattacked and finally sent her flying against the wall.

"Small fly. You kids really can't do anything to defeat me," he said looking at them one more time, "Psimon says, go to sleep," he said and suddenly the amount of noise inside their heads got so overwhelming they all fell to the ground unconscious. He got back to work on the computer and left the team on the ground thinking that his guards would come for them in a matter of minutes. After a while, he heard a sound coming from behind him, he turned around and saw Nightshade standing up and staring at him with her back on the wall.

"That was harder than I thought," she said and walked up to him, Psimon tried to read her mind but an interference sent him back. "You know who I am, don't you?" she asked and walked a bit closer as she took off her mask, Psimon noticed the long red hair that reached her hips, a vast difference from the mid-length black hair she had earlier.

"Ah, but of course, Nightfall, was it? Though I have heard nothing but rumors," he told her and once again tried to clash a big piece of debris against her, but Nightfall moved her hand and a shadow barrier kept the debris away from her. "I assume you being here is no coincidence. What is it that you want with me? and how did you manage to break away from my control?"

"That kind of thing happens when two minds share one body, or more like fight over it," she answered, "I'm looking for someone the Light took from me," she said. Psimon looked at her a little puzzled. "A girl, black wavy hair, green eyes and her powers are very similar to yours," she finished talking and was now grabbing Psimon by his collar.

"Oh her, I have no idea where they have her. I do know the coordinates for the exchange," he said looking directly into her dark red eyes.

"Psimon, don't make me smash your precious head against the wall," she said, her hand tightening around his collar. Psimon tried to break away but the interference in her mind was still present.

"I really don't know anything else, not like I care either. That's a problem between you and them, now I don't know what you are and why I can't read your mind, but your friends are about to wake up, do you really want them to see you like this and have to explain everything?" he told her, Nightfall started to put him down, but as if suddenly changing her mind she reached out and hit him. She let go of him and allowed him to flee the scene before they woke up, she then returned to the place where she had been standing and slowly her hair started to change from fiery red to black.

"What happened?" asked Batgirl.

"He must have left when he realize there's no back-up," said Kid Flash, "What was he working on?" he asked looking back at Robin.

"I couldn't get everything, but whatever it was, it was meant to have a large-scale impact," he answered. With the computer now broken, the team started to go back the way they came through. Nightshade walked out last and as she turned off the lights of the hangar she had the feeling someone else was inside the building, but when she checked again there was no one there.

"Nightshade?" said Zatanna when she stayed back, "is everything okay?" she asked, Nightshade looked back once more and nodded her head before catching up with the team.

New York City- 6:25 A.M-

Jade had just gotten home, but instead of going into her room she walked over to Lance's door and knocked softly in case he was already asleep. She placed her head against the door and after a while Lance opened it making Jade fall over into his arms. She stayed there and let him hug her, he pulled her into his room and took her over to the bed. She sat down and waited for Lance to bring her a glass of water and after he did he sat down next to her in complete silence. He didn't ask her what was wrong, he already knew what it was about. Jade put the water down on the table and turned to look at Lance, he looked at her for a second and the next thing he knew was that Jade was kissing him. Her mind went blank, there were no more flashbacks, no more thoughts about Camille, or Nightfall, or the team, everything was gone and for a moment she was relieved.

He started to kiss her back, he stuck his tongue in her mouth and was a little surprised to see that her tongue did the same. Jade then lifted his shirt and started running her cold hands against his skin, he knew where this was going, but he didn't want to stop, Jade finished taking his shirt off, and the two of them went back to kissing. Lance's hand moved from her face to the bottom of her shirt and started pulling it up until it came off, then he slowly unclipped her bra and tossed it on the floor. He ran his hand through her back, it was a scarred back, full of bullet wounds. He pulled her closer, Jade adjusted herself on top of him and reached down his pants, he did the same and soon they were both completely naked.

He lost track of time while the girl was under him and when he came back to his senses, he had already lost count of how many times they had done it. Jade dropped on top of him and after a few minutes they got into the bed, just as when he was about to ask her what had happened she had fallen asleep, so he just pulled her close and drifted off. The two of them kept having sex for the next couple of days until Lance finally dared to ask what was going on. "Why is everyone assuming there's something wrong?" she asked putting her shirt back on after coming out of the shower.

"Because I know you," he said. She was trying to avoid something, and even if he had offered himself as a distraction, it was getting out of hand. "We'll find her," he said, Jade turned to look at him.

"I know," she said catching her reflection in the mirror, "that's not what I'm worried about," she said looking away from the mirror in Lance's room. Lance crawled out of bed and towards her and hugged her from behind, kissing her neck. Again, the feeling of uneasiness faded and she felt comfortable, but it was only temporary and she knew that.


	15. Betrayal

Manhattan, New York City- September 12- 3:26 A.M-

Jade, Lance and Skye had stayed up all night preparing everything they needed for their plan to work. The siblings were taking a small nap on the couch while Jade kept going through their strategy so that everything would play out the way it should, no surprises were allowed, not for this one. She moved the pages of handwritten notes with details on each one of the team members, powers, weaknesses, everything she had observed in the last eight months. While shuffling through the pages, the LexCorp card she had picked up at the cemetery fell to the ground, Jade turned her head to look at the siblings passed out on the couch and shaking her head she put the card inside a drawer in the desk and resumed writing down the details of her plan.

Mount Justice- September 13- 4:50 P.M-

Nightshade stepped into the cave, she was in her usual mood with her earbuds on which is why she didn't hear Rocket greeting her. The girl carried on to the kitchen where she started making a sandwich for herself when Rocket popped up from behind and pulled her earbuds off. "You'll go deaf if you keep listening to loud music," said Rocket placing one earbud in her ear, it was _The Pretty Reckless_. "Why am I not surprised," she said letting the earbud fall out of her ear.

"What were you expecting? Miley Cyrus?" asked Nightshade taking the first bite from her sandwich before Rocket took half and started eating it. She glared at the girl, "I think I hate you even more now," she told her.

"Same. What are you doing here? Aside from scrounging food from the cave,"

"I came to talk with Black Canary," she said finishing up her sandwich not even bothering to deny the freeloading part. Nightshade started walking away, but stopped halfway. "I don't really hate you, I mean I do find you annoying, but I don't—,"

"Nightshade…Same," she simply said. Rocket waited in the lounge until the team started walking in. They moved to the mission room when Black Canary called them after a while, the team was briefed on a mission to keep the civilians safe while the League was taking care of Black Adam in Metropolis.

"Soo…we are the support?" asked Kid Flash before Artemis elbowed him on the side. Though none of them could deny he was right, it wasn't the time to say something like that. "Where's Nightshade? And how come she gets to skip the boring missions?"

"She was here a few minutes ago," said Rocket, noticing just now her absence.

"Nightshade came to tell me she had another mission in New York," answered Black Canary. "She said that if she's done soon she'll meet you in Metropolis. Now go," she ordered them and that was when the team realized that Nightshade was the only one of them that had never been a sidekick, sure she had worked with Huntress, but their relationship had always been as equals. She had more in common with the League than with them. No one would complain if she went off on her own, she had a city to take care of.

Metropolis-5:35 P.M-

Sure enough, when the team arrived at Metropolis, The League was fighting Black Adam, with Shazam being his main target. People as always stood on the sidelines watching the fight unfold, of course they put themselves danger just to get a glimpse of the heroes and in some cases the villains. The team moved in quickly, making sure they had a way out and so they could easily escape through the falling debris. Kid Flash did his part by running through the street, picking up civilians and moving them farther away from the fight; he had to take a woman away before Superman crashed right on top of her.

" _ **It feels like we're on clean up duty,"**_ he said though the telepathic bond Miss Martian had created for them. It had been a while since they last used it, taking into account that Nightshade hated it and they had never tried it with her.

" _ **Yeah. I thought they weren't going to give us this type of missions anymore,"**_ said Robin as he helped a family make it through the street. On the other side, Superboy stopped a car that was about to fall on a couple of small children, he took the car and threw it in Black Adam's direction, but he only shredded it to pieces with his powers.

" _ **No matter what we do they will never take us seriously,"**_ he said glaring back at him, but Wonder Woman took up all of his attention when she punched him across the face.

" _ **You are exaggerating, we haven't done this in a while,"**_ said Artemis directing a group to safety.

" _ **Hey, what's the mission?"**_ Nightshade's voice popped up in their ears.

" _ **Keeping the civilians safe from the debris and the fight,"**_ answered Rocket while she placed a large group inside a kinetic forcefield that sheltered them from the fragments of a fallen building. Miss Martian took care of all the people inside the building by keeping it from completely toppling over.

" _ **Soo...support?"**_ asked Nightshade over the comm.

" _ **See? I'm not the only one,"**_ said Kid Flash. He had ran out of people to help on his side and was now looking for others to help.

" _ **Okay, I kind of need you later. I found where the Light is keeping Dr. Lawrence, the guy that was abducted a couple of months ago,"**_ she said. _**"Once you're through with the boring job, maybe come give me a hand,"**_

" _ **You're not going to help?"**_ asked Zatanna, she was fixing the buildings with magic to prevent them from falling on the people underneath.

" _ **I've got more important things to do, and so do you,"**_ she answered and cut off the communication. The finishing blow was delivered by Shazam, he broke through Black Adam's barrier and used his lightning powers to bring down the powerful villain. With that, the team was dismissed for the day, so they rushed to New York City to help Nightshade.

New York City- 6:59 P.M-

The team reached the place Nightshade had told them about and found the girl waiting outside for them. It was an old warehouse on the outside of the city with an extensive parking lot and forest surrounding the place. Nightshade instructed them to go inside with her, and so they followed her. When they walked inside, they that it was a warehouse that had been converted into a toy store.

"Okay, odd choice for a secret hideout," said Rocket looking around the store.

"Please tell me there's a secret entrance or something, I don't want to look at these dolls anymore," said Kid Flash moving away from the shelves filled with rag dolls and Barbies.

"Looks like there's no one here," said Aqualad turning around to face Nightshade. "Are you sure this is the place?" The girl nodded looking around the room.

"Oh yeah, this is definitely the place," she answered moving her hand towards the light switch and turning off the lights. The team looked back to where she was standing, but before they could say anything, they were attacked by lightning bolts that forced them to the ground. Superboy got up first to see a weak looking girl in a black and yellow bodysuit floating above them. He got ready to jump towards the girl to take her down, but a red energy beam pushed him out of the way and into the wall. "Easy Red Shot, we don't want to hurt them that much...yet," said Nightshade adjusting her gloves and walking towards Red Shot and Livewire.

"Nightshade, what the hell is going on?" Asked Rocket while she and the others got up from the ground.

"On February 18 you were chasing after Firefly, who had just broken into my house and stolen a USB that contained important information. That night I was naturally chasing after him and since you failed to take him down, I helped. After that, all you had to do was leave, but you had to take my things," she explained looking at Robin, "to think that if you hadn't messed with my stuff none of this would have to happen, but you did and now I'm going to need that back," she said and Red Shot and Livewire started attacking the team.

Livewire started aiming at Artemis who was about to shoot an arrow at her, the girl shot lightning out of her hand, but before it could hit her Kid Flash moved Artemis out of the way. The red head glared at her while putting Artemis down on the ground and ran to attack her, but her lightning managed to hit him. Livewire was about to go back to Artemis when Rocket came flying and pushed her against the wall.

On the other side of the room, Red Shot was dealing with Miss Martian and Aqualad, he blocked their punches and used his energy beams to push them away from him. He was doing fine until Zatanna cast a spell that bound his hands together with chains. Red Shot looked at the girl before giving her a smile and kicking her across the face breaking her concentration. "Sorry gorgeous, but I don't like that kind of foreplay," he said watching Zatanna hit the floor. Miss Martian got mad and launched herself at Red Shot only to be met by an energy beam that sent her flying against the wall.

While this was going on, Robin was fighting Nightshade who was blocking all his attacks. He threw a birdarang at her which hit her arm and pierced her skin, but the girl just pulled it out and kept fighting. It wasn't until later that Superboy interrupted their fight by throwing a metal pipe at Nightshade, she dodged it but that was just a distraction to allow Robin to land a punch followed by a kick. Nightshade grabbed his arm before he could hit her again and threw him against the wall.

"Okay, I'll admit I walked into that one," she said wiping the blood off the side of her mouth as Superboy ran up to her and pushed her up against the wall lifting her up from the collar of her suit until they could look directly into each other's eyes. Since her mask had fallen off, Superboy could clearly see her piercing dark brown eyes staring back at him and he filled up with rage. Superboy clenched his fist and got ready to punch her, but her calm stare forced him to punch the wall right next to her face, and even then, she didn't even blink. She was sure he wasn't going to hit her; she knew he wouldn't be able to. "You thought I was going to flinch, didn't you?" she asked with a smirk on her face.

"I trusted you," he said lifting her up over his head before getting kicked in the face by her. Nightshade landed on her feet and moved away from Superboy.

"I didn't," she answered right before Red Shot pushed Superboy to the ground. Nightshade started to walk towards Robin when Miss Martian appeared right in front of him. Her eyes glowed and she tried to get into her mind; Nightshade was brought to her knees and let out a painful scream as she tried to fight off Miss Martian. The Martian kept venturing into her mind only to reach an interference caused by a fusion of memories and she was suddenly kicked out.

"What happened?" asked Miss Martian, backing away from the girl that had set her eyes on her.

"Okay, playtime's over," said Nightshade in between pants, "Rocket's powers come from her belt, Zatanna can't cast spells if she can't talk, Superboy's stamina is not as good as Superman's, Robin and Artemis just humans, and I think Livewire knows what to do with Kid Flash," she said walking up to Aqualad and Miss Martian, her hands forming small fireballs, while the siblings took care of the others.

Livewire surrounded Kid Flash in some sort of lightning cage that electrocuted him until he passed out. Artemis came to his rescue, but all Livewire had to do to knock her out was decrease the amount of electricity and shot it in her direction. Rocket pushed her up against the wall and hit her once before Livewire pushed her away. The girl then started shooting lightning bolts at her, but Rocket kept blocking them all with her force fields. While the girls fought it out, Zatanna was avoiding Red Shot's energy beams at the same time as he was keeping Superboy and Robin busy with energy constructs. Finally, Red shot was able to hit Zatanna who fell to the ground, he created an energy construct that wrapped itself around her mouth allowing Red Shot to focus completely on Superboy and Robin.

After locking up Aqualad and Miss Martian in a fire-cage, Nightshade turned around to see how the others were doing. The whole team was now on the ground either unconscious or just too wounded to get up and continue fighting. Nightshade leaned down next to Robin, he was breathing heavily and was about to lose consciousness, but he still grabbed her hand when she tried to reach down for his belt. Nightshade froze for a few seconds before shoving his hand away and pressing the button on his belt that opened the compartment that had the USB inside. Robin grabbed her hand again and this time he really wasn't planning on letting go.

"Was it all a lie?" he asked in between pants.

"Sorry Blunder Boy, but I don't think you'll understand," she said and twisted his hand so that the pain would leave him unconscious. She walked past the team that was laying on the floor, careful enough not to step on them as she made her way towards the siblings.

"Why?" asked Aqualad looking up at the trio. "We trusted you," he said spitting out blood.

"That was your mistake, blindly letting a stranger into your team; you have to admit that was pretty stupid," she said turning her back on them. "Even for you," she said and walked away with the siblings right behind her. The group walked out of the building leaving the defeated team behind.

Mount Justice- September 18- 2:26 P.M-

The team was picked up at the scene by the League and brought back to the medical bay of the cave. It took them some time to recover and after receiving a scolding for showing up to a mission not approved by the League, the team was feeling nothing but anger. "I understand you are feeling betrayed and defeated, but I need you to keep your focus for now. We'll deal with the situation later," said Batman, "this is not the first time it has happened and it will not be the last," he said. Robin knew that was supposed to be encouraging, but it just wasn't working.

"From now on, the League will handle anything related to Nightshade and her team," said Wonder Woman, "for now just focus on recovering," she said and walked away glaring at Batman.

Just after the League left the cave, the team started looking into Nightshade's past, and a few days later they brought Huntress into the cave to ask her, but they soon found out that she knew as little as they did. New York police, the Mayor, Huntress, the League and the team, they had all been fooled by her; she had managed to sneak into their lives with ease and left just like that. Since they didn't have any information on Nightshade, they had resorted to look for information on Jade Collins, so far, they had found out that she was born in Gotham City and was abandoned by her birth mother. When she was just a few months old she was adopted by the Collins family who, seven years later, died in a car crash with Jade being the only survivor. After that, there wasn't much on her, she moved to Metropolis when she was adopted again, but those were confidential records that they couldn't find anywhere.

"She went through a lot," said Artemis going through her files. "No wonder she is kind of weird. I mean I would be too if I had seen my family die right in front of my eyes," she said and her comment was met by awkward silence. She knew she had said something she wasn't supposed to, but now it was too late to take it back.

"The circumstances don't matter, it's the choices you make the ones that define you," said Robin typing into a new file everything they had found on Nightshade, her real name and her background, but it still seemed empty and filled with holes in her biography. There were six years missing, from the moment she moved to Metropolis, to the moment she had first appeared in New York City. Six years that remained unknown to them, and would probably remain that way until they could catch Nightshade, and they still had to find out the relationship between Nightfall and Nightshade. The atmosphere in the group had been tense, and it didn't look like it was going to get better any time soon; they felt betrayed and some of them were angered at the others that had decided to trust Nightshade so easily.

Manhattan, New York City- September 19- 4:53 P.M-

Dick, Kaldur, Raquel and Artemis stopped by Nightshade's apartment in their civilian clothes, they thought she could still be there, and if she wasn't then maybe they could at least check the place out, the problem was that they had no idea which apartment it was. The group walked into the large reception, it was nicely decorated with long lamps hanging from the ceiling, the place looked expensive and they wondered how could a teenager pay for an apartment in a place like that. The four of them just walked past the reception and towards the elevators, the last time Dick had been there, he had noticed the floor Lance pressed when he got on the elevator.

Once they got to the floor, they walked to the end of the hall and forced open the last apartment on the right, the only one that had all the lights turned off. Once the door was open, they walked into the apartment and turned on the lights; the apartment was tidy except for an out of place blanket on the couch. They made their way towards the rooms, the first room seemed to belong to Lance his bed was made, but there was nothing special in there aside from some computer parts on the ground. The next one was a light blue color with Camille written in big letters on the far wall right above the bed, this room was messy, her clothes were all over the floor and the bed. The team closed the door and moved on to the next room, a bright pink color was all over the walls and matched with pink sheets, definitely not Jade's room. They looked around for a bit and when they didn't find anything they walked to the room on the far end of the hall, they were greeted by gray walls and closed curtains, making the room look dark. Raquel opened the curtains revealing a messy room with an unmade bed and books and notebooks thrown around the room. The black and red bed sheets matched with the black bookshelves and desk that was pushed up against the wall.

"Okay this is definitely Jade's room," said Raquel, "and now we know that she wasn't the one that cleaned up the rest of the apartment," she said holding up a shirt. They looked around the room for a while, until Dick found a picture tucked in one of the drawers, it was a younger Jade with what he assumed was her family. He kept looking into the drawer until his hand pressed a button in the back and one of the walls started opening.

"Oh, Wally would just love this," said Artemis just a wide room was revealed behind the wall. They walked inside and found a wall full of swords and guns of every size and caliber; on the other wall sat a collection of knives and other gadgets that fit in her belt. They made their way deeper into the room and found a desk with multiple computer screens on top of it. Dick turned the system on and it worked until he tried to access the files; it then asked for biometric authentication.

"It's not going to work, it would take me a long time to hack this," said Dick, and just as he was moving away from the computer, he saw something on the ground next to the desk. He leaned over to pick it up, it was a LexCorp card. What was it doing there? Had Nightshade been working with the Light the whole time? He wondered running his fingers over the card.


	16. Trap

New York City- September 30- 11:35 P.M-

Nightshade, Red Shot and Livewire got ready to leave for the factory after having received a message giving them a hint to the location where the exchange was supposed to be made. The USB for Camille, that was what they were going for, but not before taking a few precautions; they took with them a few things in case it would turn out to be a trap set by The Light. The group headed out for Metropolis and stepped into the warehouse next to the pier. Their steps resounded in the seemingly empty warehouse, the lights flickered over their heads, the only thing that could be heard aside from their steps was the wind whistling out the window.

"What are we going to do?" asked Skye.

"We track them down and beat the shit out of them," answered Nightshade. The silence was suddenly broken when a red and yellow streak hit Red Shot across the face; the streak was followed by a birdarang aimed at Livewire and a purple energy blast that was dodged by Nightshade. "Of course," said Nightshade looking at the team that had assembled in front of them.

Robin had made it so that any alert that involved Nightshade would be received by the team and blocked for the Justice League, in this case they had been patrolling around New York City thinking they could spot her when the alarm went off.

"What are you planning now?" Asked Aqualad standing in the front of the team. Nightshade smiled and took out her sword while Red Shot and Livewire stood behind her. Without answering him, the girl charged at him marking the start of their confrontation. Aqualad blocked her hit with a water sword and pushed her back a couple of steps before having to block another hit. He tried to kick Nightshade, but not only did she block the hit, she also returned it by beating him in the leg with the hilt of her sword.

While the two of them fought, Red Shot and Livewire kept the rest of the team at bay by attacking them with lighting and energy beams that pushed them back. Now that they were aware that it had been a trap, the siblings were determined to do anything they could to keep the USB that Nightshade had in her belt. Kid Flash consumed most of Livewire's time, after all it wasn't easy keeping the speedster still, and the fact that Batgirl, Miss Martian and Zatanna were dead set on knocking her down didn't help much.

"Could you stay in one place, please?" she asked politely dodging a batarang while trying to strike Kid Flash. Zatanna cast a spell that pulled Skye to the ground, and the girl retaliated by hitting her with a lightning bolt.

"You're holding back," said Aqualad. He and Nightshade had reached a stalemate with both their swords hitting against each other.

"Would you rather see what's not holding back?" She asked with a smirk on her face. "I'm trying not to kill you. You should be grateful instead of calling me out on it," she told him. Aqualad pushed her back and used his water bearers to release a huge amount of water directed at her. Nightshade saw the water coming her way and used her powers to create a fire wall between them evaporating all the water as it hit the wall. By the time the water evaporated, Nightshade lowered her hands while still standing in the same spot; it didn't even manage to make her budge.

"That is what I call not holding back," said Aqualad. The siblings got distracted by the sudden strength of the attack and let Robin and Rocket slip through their defense. The two of them made their way towards Nightshade, Robin took out a batarang and threw it her way only to have it burn down before it could reach her. On the other hand, Rocket started attacking her with energy beams that Nightshade would just dodge or put up fire walls to protect herself from the blasts.

"Well, someone's angry," said Nightshade dodging their hits. Rocket managed to hit her and send her flying through the wall. Nightshade landed in some pipes and one of them pierced her chest, but she just pulled it right off. "That felt so wrong," she said as the hole in her chest disappeared leaving only her torn clothes as evidence. The girl lifted her face to see Miss Martian and Rocket floating right above her, ready to strike; she ran away as soon as the purple beams started targeting her, but thanks to Miss Martian's powers she didn't get far.

Miss Martian lifted her up in the air momentarily paralyzing her with fear. Rocket took the chance to strike her with her beams a few times before Nightshade finally reacted. She threw a giant fireball at Miss Martian forcing her to let go of her only to get caught by Red Shot who placed her safely on the ground before returning to fight Kid Flash who had proven to be more annoying than he thought. While the fight was going on, they heard a loud explosion coming from the back of the building.

"Was that one of ours?" asked Nightshade looking back at Red Shot. He shrugged.

"You brought explosives?!" asked Artemis. The trio ignored the question and focused their attention on the footsteps coming from the back. In a matter of seconds, the room was filled with Black Mask's goons that started attacking both teams. Red Shot grabbed Nightshade and flew out of the building leaving the team behind.

"They're leaving," said Superboy getting ready to go after them, but one of the goons blocked his path. Outside, Red Shot put Nightshade down right outside the factory; the fight could be heard clearly from the distance, not even the rain could drown out the noise. Livewire landed next to them, she turned around to look at the factory just as another explosion went off.

"I'm going back," said Nightshade.

"We barely make it out alive and now you want to go back in to help the ones that are trying to lock us up? Again?" asked Red Shot grabbing Nightshade's arm when she passed in front of him.

"I said _I'm_ going back, you don't have to come with me," she answered yanking her arm back before she continued to make her way towards the burning building along with Livewire who glared at her brother before going after Nightshade.

Inside the factory, the fight was interrupted by a lightning bolt striking one of the henchmen followed by a series of fireballs. Nightshade and Livewire had gotten back into the place, with a reluctant Red Shot right behind them. "Why are you back?" asked Aqualad.

"Look, I don't care about Black Mask or these guys, but there are four more bombs scattered across the building, if we don't disable them we are all going to blow up," she said, appealing to his no killing rule, but her only intention was to get them out of there. "We're the only ones that know where they are and how to shut them off, so how about a temporary truce?" asked Nightshade ignoring his question.

"How do I know you won't betray us again?" he asked.

"I came back, didn't I?"

"Zatanna, Artemis you're with me,"

"Red Shot, go with them," ordered Nightshade.

"Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Superboy, go to the other side,"

"Livewire, show them where it is,"

"You go with Robin, Batgirl and Rocket to the back," said Aqualad before disappearing with his group.

Zatanna, Artemis and Aqualad followed Red Shot through the building, they encountered a few goons, but nothing they couldn't take care of. It wasn't until they reached the room where the bomb was that they found a large group of henchmen waiting for them. The four of them defended themselves from their attacks; this group of guards was carrying high powered weapons that were hard to defend against, some of this included a shotgun and a weapon that fired electricity. One of the guards aimed his gun at Artemis identifying her as the only powerless one, but Red Shot covered her with an energy construct.

"Not going to thank you," she said taking out an arrow and shooting it just at the guard's feet only to have it explode a few seconds later.

"Wasn't expecting one," he told her. And then focused his attention on Zatanna. "Hey beautiful! Why don't you cover me while I disarm the bomb?" he said shooting down another guard with his energy beams.

"It's Zatanna," she answered still placing herself in front of him, preventing any guards from getting close to him. "Hurry up," she ordered him. Red Shot crouched down and inserted a passcode on the pad of attached to the bomb, disabling it. One of the guards managed to get past Zatanna, but before he could reach Red Shot, the girl cast a spell that pulled the guard towards the wall and away from him.

"Thank you, gorgeous," he said getting really close to her face. Zatanna noticed his chiseled chin and deep brown eyes along with his charming smile, but moved away when a guard was coming their way. "Let's get this over with," he said walking away from Zatanna and towards the crowd of guards.

Kid Flash, Miss Martian and Superboy were right behind Livewire, she had them run through a couple of rooms filled with guards before finally finding the right room. The group was exhausted by the time they reached the room and the fact that this one as well had guards waiting for them didn't help. Miss Martian got to work, she picked up some scrap that was in the room and started throwing it at the guards while Superboy powered through the crowd.

Kid Flash was punched by one of the guards when he tried to cover Livewire while she disarmed the bomb. "Come on, hurry up," he said pushing the guard against the wall.

"I'm trying okay?" she answered, "It's just that I didn't activate this one, my brother did," she answered pressing the wrong code again.

"Great, we got the air-head," Kid Flash muttered under his breath. With just one more try left, Livewire closed her eyes and pressed enter on the pad. He muscles tensed as she waited for the beep that came just a few seconds later followed by a green light. She let out a sigh of relieve and turned around to help the team with the fight, but not before zapping Kid Flash with lightning.

"I heard that," she simply said.

Nightshade, Rocket, Robin and Batgirl took the other side, there were two more bombs left, and not much time left. Nightshade told Robin and Rocket were the other bomb was and told them how to disarm it, while she and Batgirl looked for the last one.

After Batgirl and Nightshade got separated from Robin and Rocket. Both girls were trying to find the other bomb, that was no longer in the place they had left it.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing? Black Mask could be anywhere," she reminded her.

"Yeah, but he's just his reputation, the guy's an idiot. Relax, this is going to be easy," she said recognizing the uptight attitude in Batman. They ran into the room at the end of the hall only to find Black Mask, or more like he was waiting for them knowing that they would end up there. At first Batgirl tried to put Nightshade behind her, stepping in front of her.

"Are you really trying to protect her?" he laughed walking up to them. Batgirl didn't move a muscle, but he wasn't looking at her, he was looking at Nightshade. Her angry expression made him want to get closer, he wanted to challenge her. Before he could get too close, Batgirl grabbed his collar and pushed him up against the wall. Nightshade's expression changed from rage to surprise, as she never imagined the red-head would do something like that, at least not for her. "I'm going to take that as a yes," he said looking at the girl. Black Mask took out a knife, but before he could stab Batgirl, Nightshade grabbed the girl by the collar and pulled her away from him. This time, Nightshade stood in front of Batgirl as if trying to return the favor. Black Mask didn't say anything, he just waited for her to kick the knife off his hand and finally threw a punch which was dodged by her.

"I thought you hated confrontations," she said grabbing his fist and twisting it, so that he was kneeling down in front of her.

"You are right," he told her taking the knife he had dropped and stabbing Nightshade in the stomach, she took a few steps back along with Batgirl. "I do hate confrontations, but he doesn't" he said just as Warblade stepped out of the shadows.

"Remember that I told you before that this was going to be easy?" asked Nightshade looking back at Batgirl.

"Yeah," she answered staring that the man in the steel suit with ridiculously long claws.

"I take that back," said Nightshade taking out her sword; Batgirl followed her lead and took out a couple of explosive batarangs. She threw them first before Nightshade could take a swing at Warblade and the two pieces got stuck in his suit before blowing up. Nightshade managed to stand back, waiting for the smoke to clear, but she never let her guard down. She knew that wouldn't work, she had read about Warblade who just like her had a fast acting healing factor. Once the smoke cleared, the two girls saw warblade regenerating right before their eyes and continue with the fight. He launched himself at Batgirl, who dodged his huge claws that were then intercepted by Nightshade's sword and then pushed back. Batgirl took the chance and kicked Warblade in the head twice before putting freeze bombs in his back where he couldn't reach them. With that, his lower half froze.

"Tell me something, how do you wipe with those claws?" asked Nightshade staring at Warblade and laughing at her own joke. Batgirl rolled her eyes and turned around to search for Black Mask, but he was nowhere to be seen. That was until they heard him calling after them, while holding a trigger in his hand. "Oh, come on!" yelled Nightshade. Batgirl threw a batarang at his hand, knocking the trigger out of his hand. Nightshade dove in to grab it before it would hit the ground, managing to catch it at the last minute.

"You okay?" asked Batgirl. Nightshade nodded getting up from the ground only to have her head kicked by Black Mask.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked pulling out a gun.

"That way, but I guess that's not going to happen anymore," her snarky answer angered him, making him press his foot harder against her head. In that moment, they heard a cracking sound, Nightshade managed to look up to see Warblade about to jump at Batgirl who was distracted. "Hey, watch out!" she yelled, just before Warblade scratched Batgirl's leg and her right arm. She didn't have much time to worry though, since Black Mask pulled the trigger and shot her leg. He leaned down to take the trigger from her hand and stared to walk away leaving them with Warblade; once he was out, he pressed the button causing the bombs he had planted to blow up along with the other bomb left.

"I want to say cheap shot, but who am I to talk?" said Nightshade as she struggled to get up from the ground, Warblade was standing above Batgirl, ready to deliver the final blow, when his head was chopped off by the girl's sword. Nightshade helped Batgirl up from the ground, she wrapped her arm around her shoulders and held her against her body so that she could support herself while they walked out of the flaming room. Nightshade winced with every step, the pain in her leg was strong, but she couldn't leave Batgirl in the middle of the fire.

" _ **Where are you?"**_ asked Red Shot over the comm.

" _ **I'm getting close to the exit. Batgirl's injured,"**_ she said.

" _ **What about you?"**_ Nightshade looked down at her leg and the blood that was running down her pants.

" _ **I'm fine. Is everyone out?"**_ she asked just as she and Batgirl reached the hall that led to the exit.

" _ **Rocket made it out, but Bird Brain is still inside. Kid Flash will be on his way as soon as he recovers,"**_ Nightshade let go of Batgirl and looked back at the burning room. _**"Jade don't do anything stupid, just come out. Please,"**_ he said, his voice trembling a little at the end.

" _ **I'm sending Batgirl out alone,"**_

" _ **Jade, what are you going to do? Jade!"**_ he kept calling after her when she didn't answer. Nightshade ripped a piece of her shirt and wrapped it around her leg knowing it wouldn't do much, but at least it would slow down the bleeding.

"Where are you going?" asked Batgirl. "You're injured. I'll go look for him," she said.

"Please, you can hardly walk, head to the exit and stay close to the wall" she told her, "unless you want to get crushed by the falling debris, in which case you can just do whatever you want." She made her way back, remembering that the last time she had seen Robin had been in the storage room. Her steps were clumsy, but she managed to make her way back to the storage room.

"Bir Boy!" she yelled, "cough if you're alive!"

"Nightshade?" she heard him ask from the back of the room. "What are you doing here?" he asked her in between coughs.

"Saving your ass, what does it look like?" Nightshade stretched out her hand, but Robin kept his back on the wall as the flames closed in on him. "Fine," she said and swept her hands apart making way for him through the flames. "Come on, we're getting out of here," Robin limped past her, coughing as the smoke filled his lungs.

"I didn't need you to come back for me," he said. His steps were getting clumsier and he was slowing down his pace as Nightshade kept clearing the flames out of his path. Nightshade placed a hand against the wall and started burning a hole through. "Everything is always a mess when you get involved," he told her right before passing out. The last thing he saw was a hand reaching out to grab him before he could hit the ground.

The next time he opened his eyes he saw Nightshade moving her mouth but he couldn't make out the words until all the sounds came back to him. The crackling fire of the hangar, and Nightshade calling out for him. "Grayson!" she said. He looked at her face, she wasn't wearing her mask and her hair was falling on his face; it smelled like a combination of smoke, sweat and shampoo. He stared at her for a little while longer until he saw the clear night sky over their heads.

The boy sat up and immediately started coughing, Nightshade sat next to him waiting for him to stop. Once he did, they both stood up, "What happened?" he asked looking around trying to find any sign of the team or Batgirl. Nightshade answered him, but he wasn't listening, he was looking for them, and the moment he spotted them he ran up to them completely forgetting about the girl he had left behind. Robin had been worried about them, he didn't think they had made it out. He had been so worried, that he couldn't help himself, his legs just started moving on their own and it took his mind a while to figure out what he had done. After reaching her, the red-head looked up at him. She was gasping for air as she recovered, but as soon as she saw him, she threw herself into his arms.

Nightshade stood there knowing exactly what would happen, but still she didn't go after him, she couldn't. The girl looked down at her leg and the piece of cloth wrapped around it. He had been so busy looking for the team, even though he was talking to her, his mind and his eyes where somewhere else, and he hadn't noticed she had been shot; which was probably a good thing considering everything she had done to them. She looked at the whole team gathered around the two of them and then started walking away from them and towards the woods.

"Hey," said Batgirl holding him tightly, "you are alright after all," she said. The rest of the team, Red Shot and Livewire, stood behind watching them.

"Yeah, and so are you, I really did though I wouldn't make it. If it hadn't been for Night—" he started suddenly remembering who was the one that had pulled him out of the building, and who was the one he had left behind. He finally turned around to find that the space she once occupied was now empty. "She's gone," he said letting go of Batgirl.

"What do you mean she's gone? Where did she go? She was injured," said Batgirl getting up from the ground.

"Injured?" asked Red Shot.

"Yeah, she was shot. Black Mask shot her in the leg," she explained. Red Shot and Livewire looked at each other before turning to look at the team.

"We have to find her," said Red Shot before running off.

"What? Wait, what happened in there? Why are we suddenly helping Nightshade, or you for that matter?" asked Kid Flash.

"Nightshade can't get shot, remember?" said Artemis before running off. After hearing it, there was no doubt left in their minds, so they separated and started looking around the woods for her. Kid Flash rushed through the woods trying to cover as much ground as he could, but he didn't notice the girl on top of a tree branch. Despite her fear of heights and the pain in her leg, she had climbed the tree and was now laying on her back as the team passed by. The piece of cloth she had used was now soaking wet and the blood was dripping to the ground. She could feel herself slowly slipping away, losing consciousness from the rapid blood loss, and as she heard Red Shot trying to contact her through the earpiece, she took it off and flung the small thing far away from her before closing her eyes.

"Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with me?" she asked herself as she started feeling the small water drops hit her face, and just like that it started raining. Nightshade started laughing loudly, completely sure that the sound of the heavy rain would muffle her laughter.

"I bet you think this is all very poetic, don't you?" she heard a familiar voice. The girl didn't even have to open her eyes to know who it was, so she just placed her hands over her face.

"Can't you see that I'm trying to have a moment here?" she asked finally looking at the source of the voice, Lex Luthor stood comfortably under an umbrella that was being held by Mercy Graves, his assistant. He took the umbrella from her and told her to climb up, which she did. As soon as Mercy landed on the branch it started cracking, Nightshade sat up trying to keep her leg stretched since she couldn't really stand at this point. "This can't be very safe" she said looking up at her.

"I don't need it to be safe, I just need to get you down from there," said Mercy looking down at the girl. She tried to kick Nightshade, but the girl blocked it and used her fist to hit Mercy's knee, bending it. After that, Nightshade tried a side-sweeping kick that Mercy dodged making the branch crack a bit more. The woman returned the blow with a kick to the face which Nightshade took hard.

"Holly shit! There goes the last thing that wasn't broken," she said finally taking out a knife and pinning Mercy's sleeve to the tree trunk. Angry, Mercy ripped off her sleeve revealing her implanted gun. Nightshade rolled away holding onto the branch as the bullets hit the it; when it finally gave in, both of them fell off. Nightshade tried to get up, groaning as she used the trunk to support herself.

"You, son of a bitch," she said knowing she couldn't keep fighting. "Is this what you call a fair fight?"

"Don't be like that, you know that nothing that involves you is fair. Now, let's go back home Jade," he said right before Mercy kicked Nightshade across the face knocking her out.

Meanwhile deeper into the woods, Robin ran through thinking that she couldn't have gone too far, not while she was injured and not while losing so much blood. He kept running yelling her name until he slipped and fell flat on his face dirtying it with mud and fallen leaves. He cleaned his face with his hand letting the rain fall on him, and suddenly reality somehow caught up with him. He realized what had happened, everything she had done to him and the team.

Remembering what she was after, he checked his belt believing he wouldn't find the USB, but he found it in one of the compartments of his belt. Nightshade must have put it back in his belt while he was unconscious, he thought as his hands clutched the small thing. His legs finally gave in and he fell to the ground, "Where are you?" he whispered looking down at the USB. He was about to scream her name, when he heard Red Shot yelling for her.

"Nightshade!" he heard Red Shot's desperate cry.

His screaming could be heard on the other side where Mercy was carrying an unconscious Nightshade with Luthor walking right behind them. He turned around to see where the screams were coming from and smiled to himself scheming the next step of his plan in his head.


	17. Shadow of the Past Pt I

Nightshade opened her eyes, she could barely feel her legs or anything else as she was being dragged through the darkened hall by two muscular men with Mercy leading the way. She tried to keep her head up, but the blood loss had made her dizzy and as she let her head fall, she heard frantic panting and rushed footsteps coming their way. She lifted her head just in time to see no one other than Camille running away from some guards only to run into them. She could see the defeat in her face right before their eyes met; Nightshade shot her a look followed by a smirk and the next thing Camille saw was someone using their last bit of strength to give her a chance to escape. Nightshade lifted herself up and kicked one of the guards in the head while dragging the other one to the ground with her. After that Mercy turned to look at Nightshade who raised her fist getting ready to fight.

Camille took the chance and ran away deeper into the hall passing by Nightshade who whispered something in her ear. After the girl disappeared from their sight, the guards that were after her and Mercy stood in front of Nightshade. Most of them were wondering how she was still standing, but the girl didn't give them much chance to think about it since she started attacking them knocking them down one by one. The whole thing lasted quite a while with the sound of the cracking bones getting more attention from other guards that were called in to contain the situation.

"What are you?" one of them asked as Nightshade had her hands wrapped around his arm ready to dislocate it. After twisting it, she had to avoid a bullet coming from Mercy's arm.

"An assassin," answered the assistant aiming at Nightshade.

"And a damn good one if I may say," she completed the sentence, "do you think she's already out?" asked Nightshade raising her arms in the air. Mercy didn't answer, instead she shot Nightshade who didn't bother moving out of the way.

When Nightshade opened her eyes again, she was welcomed by the smell of bleach and blood that flooded the room. she looked around, she was in a mostly empty room with only a chair, some computers and a few cameras. The room was completely gray and there wasn't a single window. The girl tried to move her hands, but they were chained to the roof leaving her dangling, her feet unable to touch the ground. Her head was pounding, but her legs didn't hurt anymore, she looked down to discover that the bullet wound had been cleaned and someone had wrapped it with bandage. After a while, Luthor walked into the room along with Mercy.

"Look who's up," he said walking up to her as Mercy closed the heavy door behind her. Nightshade didn't say anything, she just glared at him. "You have something that belongs to me," he told placing his fingers under her chin lifting her head up to meet his gaze.

"Yeah, about that. I might have lost it during the fight with Black Mask, but since the whole place burned down it's going to be hard to find it," she said looking into his eyes. Luthor let go of her and allowed Mercy to take over, she punched her in the stomach and then kicked her across the face. Nightshade spat out blood at Luthor's feet and before she could recover, Mercy grabbed a knife and stabbed her in the chest.

"This shouldn't be too much for you to handle, after all those wounds will disappear in a few minutes. See you later, kid," he said closing the door behind him and leaving her with Mercy and another guard.

Mount Justice- October 1- 5:24 A.M-

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert," the alarm kept buzzing, "Security breach, locking all doors," the team rushed to the entrance portal and got in fighting position. A girl with pale skin and long black hair that contrasted heavily with her light green eyes stepped out; she looked hurt, bruises running up her arms and superficial cuts on her legs. Lance and Skye stared at the girl in shock, and started to back away a little, Aqualad was the only one who noticed.

"What is going on?" he asked glaring at them. The siblings changed the expression on their faces and dropped theirs guards but didn't answer the question.

"My name is Camille Brooks. I was being held captive by the Light, but I managed to escape," she said panting and walking closer to the team, and it was only then that they noticed the blood trace she was leaving behind. Aqualad stepped forward but he was stopped when Skye placed her hand on his chest and pushed him lightly as she walked past him. She wrapped her arm around Camille and allowed her to lean on her ignoring the big blood stain forming on her suit and sat her down on the couch. "Well I couldn't have done it without Jade," she said.

"You saw Jade?" asked Lance walking up to her. The girl nodded as the whole team gathered around her, it was now clear that she was one of them.

"She was being dragged in while I was escaping. I ran into them and she used herself as a distraction so I could run away," she told them, her hands were shaking and her throat felt dry, "guys, you have to find her, it looked like she had been shot and beaten up. She could barely stay up," she continued talking.

"Wait a minute, who are you and what do you wanted the USB for?" asked Aqualad.

"Well for starters its ours. You were the ones that stole it," answered Lance.

"Lance, stop. The Light wanted the USB in exchange for our friend Camille. They took her a while ago," said Skye.

"Okay, so what's in here?" he asked. Skye looked at her brother, but since he wouldn't say anything, she did.

"When Jade worked with the Light, they had her collect information on every superhero, vigilante, sidekick, villain and henchmen she could find. She collected a lot of information, stored it in that USB and took it with her so they couldn't use it," she said. "You've been holding personal information the Light desperately wants."

"Who's in here?" asked Robin.

"You, all of you, a good part of the League, including Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman, people that work or has worked for the Light at some point, and some other criminals. It has strengths, weaknesses, secret identities and more. She did a great job with that," answered Lance.

"Open it," said Robin handing him the USB. The team looked at him, a little bit surprised since they didn't know he had recovered the USB from Nightshade. Lance took it and plugged it in the cave's computer, he broke through the several firewalls and was able to show the hundreds of files to the team.

"how did you get it?" asked Aqualad.

"Nightshade put it back in my belt," he explained. The whole room went silent, they never would have thought that she would do something like that.

"We should have trusted her," said Rocket.

"You think you can now?" asked Camille as Zatanna, who had gotten the first aid kit, was patching her up. The team remained quiet and the siblings glared at Camille, they were finally starting to soften up, but she just had to say something.

"You're right," said Aqualad, "we can't trust her if we don't know anything about her or any of you for that matter, so why don't you start from there?" he said. The three of them exchanged a few looks and that was when Lance stepped forward.

"Camille, Skye, Jade and I were trained by the Light. At first their plan was to create the perfect weapon to fight the Justice League, but after a while they got greedy and decided to start their own team to speed up the process. Jade was the one that got us out of there so that we could stop them from doing that to anyone else. Ever since we got out of that place, we've been working to spoil their plans, everything was planned so that it would look like an accident or as if they themselves had messed up, but then you people stumbled into C.A.D.M.U.S and rescued Superboy. The Light turned their attention on you and it became harder to stop them with your interference. It wasn't until Firefly stole the USB from us, that we could restart our plan to take them down," he explained.

"Wait hold on, what do you mean you four were trained by the Light?" asked Kid Flash.

"It's kind of a long story," answered Skye.

"we've got time," said Superboy.

"Well, we're not really clear on Jade's side of the story, but we can tell you ours," said the brunette.

A thirteen-year-old Lance Davis was running away from an angry vendor through the streets of Starling City. The kid had just stolen some food and money from the old man and was now making a run for it, he took a sharp turn around the block and managed to lose him allowing him to make his way back to his twelve-year-old sister Skye who was eagerly waiting for him while hiding inside a cardboard box in an alleyway. Lance walked up to her and the two of them split their food and put the money away in a tiny, dirty old box that had a few singles and coins inside. Lance noticed how excitedly his sister was eating and decided to give up some of his food so that she could have some more, despite of how much his own stomach was grumbling.

"Here, eat up," he said with a heavy English accent. The truth was the siblings had come to the United States with their immigrant parents, but after settling in Starling City, they had killed themselves after accumulating a lot of debt. Their two cowardly parents had hung themselves from a beam in their tiny apartment only so that they could be found by Skye a few minutes later, without any other family members to take care of them, they were left behind to fend for themselves in the huge city. After eating, Skye set herself on the ground and curled up against the wall to get some sleep, but the cold kept her awake until her brother set himself against her to keep her warm. After a couple of minutes, Lance could ignore his growling stomach and the cold that ran up his back, and finally fell asleep. The next morning, he got up to find that his body ached all over, he barely had the strength to get up from the ground. He eyes wandered towards Skye who was sitting next to him with tears in her eyes and her hand pressed against his cheek.

"What's wrong?" he asked with a cracked voice.

"You have a fever. Are you going to die?" she asked in between sobs. He must have caught a cold, and since he hadn't eaten in days, his body was too weak. Still, he used up all his strength to get up from the ground so that she wouldn't worry.

"No, I'm fine. Let's go find something to eat," he told her as he watched her eyes light up. Lance held onto his sister so he could walk better while trying not to worry her, he held her shoulder a little bit too tightly and that was when Skye realized that her brother was not fine. She asked if he wanted to stop for a while, but he just kept walking until he collapsed in the middle of the street. the little girl, desperate to help her brother started screaming out for help only to be met with cold indifference and glaring eyes. Suddenly a man walked up to them and offered his help, not knowing any better, she accepted his help and the man took her and her brother away from the busy street.

The next time Lance woke up, he found himself in a hospital bed with a hot meal waiting right next to him and Skye sleeping on his bedside while holding his hand tightly. He felt much better, but had no way of knowing that that day would be the first of many painful ones. After he got better, the siblings were moved to a different place, where they would be experimented on day and night until one day while they tortured his sister right in front of his eyes, he tried to push through the scientists holding him down and managed to push them through the wall. After that incident, the experimenting stopped and the intense training started. They taught him everything he knew about computers and how to control his newfound set of powers. As for his sister, when her powers showed, there was a blackout in the building and when the electricity returned, one of the workers was electrocuted. She never quite learned how to control her powers, so with every burst of emotion, her powers would lash out.

After listening to the sibling's story, the team turned to look at Camille who was getting her wounds treated. "What?" she asked looking up at them. "Oh! I was sold by my mom," she explained as nonchalantly as she could. Seeing their shocked faces, the girl decided to explain a bit more of her story.

An eleven-year-old Camille sat down in the small living room of a rundown apartment, she stared at the small T.V. that was propped against the wall. Most kids would have been in bed by then, but Camille had the habit of waiting up for her mother. She got excited as she heard the door open and rushed to greet her mother who, as always, was accompanied by a man. It was a different one every night, but one thing that never changed was the way she brushed off her own daughter before locking herself up in her room with her guest.

The girl would then quietly get up and walk towards her own room and tug herself in to get some sleep before going to school the next morning. A hard banging sound woke her up early in the morning, too early. Camille ran out of her room to see her mother getting beat up by the man she had brought the night before; he shoved her face against the wall and then kicked her in the back multiple times. Camille ran towards them to help her mother, but all she managed to do was get him to focus his rage on her. While he beat her, her mother crawled away from them and just reached for a bottle of wine and sat back to watch. After what felt like hours for Camille, the man finally left their house. The little girl tried to reach out to her mother, but the woman swatted her hand away and kicked her in the stomach before going back to her room.

"Fucking kid," she said before closing the door behind her. Camille was left behind on the floor of the living room breathing heavily with bruises all over her body. After that night, Camille no longer waited for her mother to come home, but she always stayed awake until she heard the front door opening and her loud voice coming from the living room. A couple of months passed and Camille's mother kept bringing men to her house every night, and the little girl kept hiding in her room as usual. One night, she heard her mother calling her name, she had to wait until she called her once more, because she couldn't believe her mother was really calling her, not after everything that had happened.

Slowly, Camille poked her head out and saw her mother with three men, two of them were tall men with rough featured and big bulked arms. The third man, on the other hand was skinny and wore a pair of small, round tainted glasses, and even though he was the weakest looking one out of the three, when she laid her eyes on him a shiver ran up her spine. Camille tried to hide back in her room making a lot of noise in the process and getting their attention. The man with the round glasses walked up to her room and slowly opened the door to find the girl trying to crawl under her bed.

"There you are," he said and the two other men walked inside and pulled her out from under her bed. Camille started crying as she pleaded to her mother for help, while she cried, Camille felt something warm running down her leg; she had peed herself. The two men just dragged her past her mom who just watched from the doorway, the man in glasses stayed behind and handed her mother an envelope with money sticking out from the outside. The woman looked at her daughter being dragged into the car and smiled.

"Don't bring her back," she said and closed the door behind her. The glasses man smiled at the girl as they were shoving her into the car.

"Don't worry little girl, we'll take care of you," he said before slamming the car door shut.

She explained that they also experimented on her until her powers started to show, then the training started and she was introduced to the siblings.

"Wait, so none of you knew Jade while you were in there?" asked Robin.

"No. We're not really clear on what happened to Jade, we do know that her family is dead. It was a common car accident, but after that she was picked up by the Light. Other than that, all we know is that out of the four of us, she was in there the longest and they put her through horrible things," he said looking at Superboy. "You think being grown in a test tube is bad, try going through what she did for six years,"

"So, the Light also activated her powers?" asked Robin.

"You're wrong, Jade was different from us; she didn't have a metahuman gene. With us, all they had to do was activate it, but they had to create those genes for Jade." Said Skye. "It was incredibly painful," she said.

"When our training started, we were moved to another part of the building where we would hear ear-piercing screams coming from one of the labs down the hall," explained Lance only to be interrupted by Aqualad.

"Jade," Lance nodded quietly.

"That hall always smelled like gun powder, blood and chemicals," recalled Camille. "They were working on her healing factor," Camille let it slip.

"What do you mean? Why would they give her a healing factor after pyrokinesis? The fire would burn her alive without constant regeneration," said Kid Flash staring at the trio.

"Okay that's enough, I'm just going to tell them. Before us, the Light had been working on a project to give special abilities to non-metahumans. They had given up on the project, but then they found Jade, an ordinary, powerless human without any metagenes. They altered her DNA to give her powers and after she survived the first one, they did it again and to avoid straining her body, they gave her a healing factor. It was flawed though, so to test it out they would harm her and record the results. After a successful test run, they named her after the project that was meant to take down the Justice League and make way for the Light," explained Skye.

"Project Nightfall," said Aqualad. The girl nodded.

"Nightfall was unstable, dangerous and very violent. In the end, they gave their weapon the means to escape," said Skye.

"Her powers," said Superboy.

"No. Us," said Camille, "Jade's goal wasn't to break us out, she didn't care whether we left that place alive or not. She just wanted to get out, by whatever means possible. That's the kind of person she is,"

A shadowy figure made its way towards them, the three kids watched in horror as the lights flickered on and off and the building seemed to crumble around them. Suddenly their cell door was opened just as the lights flickered back on, and they were finally able to see the red-headed girl holding the door open for them. Her clothes were ripped and you could see her open wounds leaving blood stains all over the floor, but she didn't seem to mind. "If you help me clear the way, I'll help you get out of here" she said, trying to talk louder than the alarm that had gone off the moment she forcibly opened the door. The three of them nodded and followed her through the hall, they didn't have weapons but luckily, they didn't need them. They used their fairly untrained powers to clear the path of any guard that crossed their way, Lance tried to aim his energy blasts at them, Camille was using her mental constructs to hurt the guards, but Skye remained reluctant to use her powers since the last time she did she had caused a power surge that had killed three people. Staying in front of the group, Nightfall was generating darkness blasts that took them out easily. Out of the four of them, the only one that seemed to have some sort of control over her powers was the red-head.

The group was met by another wave of guards accompanied by Klarion the Witch Boy. They were standing just a few feet away from the entrance. "Nightfall, did you really think you could get away?" he said looking at the red-head. She didn't answer, instead she used her powers to hit him and his cat while the guards attacked the others. Nightfall made her way towards the door and without looking at the trio, she left the building.

"Is she just going to leave us?" asked Camille.

"Of course, you think she really wanted you out? You were the distraction," said Klarion as the trio lost all of their hopes and let themselves be overpowered by the guards. It wasn't until a few seconds later that, the door burst open and Nightfall walked back in.

"If you get in my way I'll kill you," she said releasing a wave of darkness that avoided the kids and knocked down some of the guards. Nighfall stood next to Lance and looking down at him she said, "look alive," right before hitting one of the guards with her fist. The trio got up from the ground and joined Nightfall in the fight, eventually clearing out the guards leaving Klarion alone. He looked at the group and covered his cat with his arms noticing the way Nightfall was looking at it. The girl's smile made Klarion retreat, allowing the four of them to leave.

"So, Nightfall and Nightshade are the same person,"

"Jade's always been hungry for power. After escaping she started looking for ways to get more power, she even tried drinking Bane's venom only to have it burn her internal organs. If it hadn't been for her healing factor, she would have died. We don't know what happened, but one day she suddenly changed and along with that came her pyrokinesis and the new name," explained Lance. After hearing all that, the team still had so many question that they knew the three of them wouldn't be able to answer, so they decided to leave it at that and focus on finding Nightshade…. alive.


	18. Shadow of the Past Pt II

Mount Justice- October 5-6:54 P.M-

The League learned about what the team did behind their backs and decide to pay a visit to the cave. Upon seeing Lance, Skye and Camille, the adults interrogate them while the team looks into the information on the USB. Just as they had said, the found their secret identities, weaknesses and private lives had been completely exposed and placed in a file.

"What are we going to do?" asked Artemis "If this information gets out, that's it. The whole world will know who we are,"

"How did she get all of this?" asked Robin going through his own file.

"Maybe save that discussion for another time? Right now, we have to focus on making sure that information never gets out," said Aqualad. Robin was about to close his file when he received an alert, he opened it to find a video. It was very dark at first, so he couldn't make out what was in it, but after a few seconds, the image adjusted.

"It's a live feed," he said getting the attention of the rest of the team. Once the image adjusted, they saw a black-haired girl tied up to a chair with a black collar around her neck. Her hair was covering her face, but the team didn't need much more than the uniform to know who it was. Victor Zsasz and his grossly scarred face appeared in front of the camera, blocking their view of the girl.

"Hello kids, you might be wondering how we were able to get in touch with you, well your friend here was kind enough to give us your information," he said walking towards Nightshade and placing his scarred hand over her head before pulling back her hair. Nightshade's face was bruised and had some cuts that were just starting to heal, meaning they had been quite recent. "You have something that belongs to us, so why don't you be nice kids and bring it over and maybe we can finally put this whole thing behind us? Right, Nightshade?" he asked playing with a knife in his hand before stabbing the girl in the leg with it. The room was filled with her screams and they watched as blood ran down her leg.

"If we give it to you, would you let her go?" asked Aqualad to everyone's surprise.

"Of course, it's not like she'll be of any use to us once this is over," answered Zsasz pulling out the knife from her leg. An equally painful scream followed. "Now, what do you say to the kids trying to save your life?"

"Don't do it," she said in an unusually soft voice.

"What did you just say?" Nightshade looked up at Zsasz and spit on him.

"Don't come for me, give it to the Justice League," she said looking directly at the camera. Zsasz laughed and pulled out a gun.

"How noble!" he said and pulled the trigger, "Bring it here, or we'll go looking for you," he said. The screen went black leaving only some coordinates behind. Robin traced the place to a suburban house in New York, not exactly a place that screamed villain lair.

"Wait, are we really going?" asked Zatanna, "I mean she was willing to sell us out to the Light."

"To save her friend," answered Rocket, "I mean, if she was really trying to trick us, she wouldn't have told us not to go."

"I agree with Rocket," said Aqualad, "if Nightshade wanted to really hurt us, she would have done it a long time ago. She gave us the USB back and risked her life for one of her friends, that does not sound like a plan to bring us down," he argued. Just then, Lance, Camille and Skye walked into the room. Batman and Black Canary had stayed behind discussing their findings with one another, so they had allowed the trio to return to the team.

"Where is she?" asked Lance.

"Somewhere in the suburban area of New York," answered Robin. Lance, Skye and Camille started getting ready to leave when Rocket walked up to them and started preparing as well. Soon she was joined by Superboy, Artemis, Aqualad and Robin who quietly followed them. The group turned to look at the remaining team members who had stayed behind.

"Fine, but this has 'trap' written all over it," said Kid Flash. The three of them reluctantly joined the others and left for the address they had been given.

New York- 9:25 P.M-

Miss Martian landed her ship a couple of blocks away from the house and the team made their way through the neighborhood on foot. The houses looked huge and rather expensive, but when they got to the address, they stood in front of the largest house, but it had clearly been empty for a long time. The wooden steps leading up to it were broken and some windows were cracked; the door was ajar, so the team simply walked right into the house. Superboy tried switching on the light, but it looked like there was no electricity in the house, so Rocket and Red Shot provided some light for them. The house inside was intact, except for the thick layer of dust covering everything; especially the photographs that hung on the walls. Robin walked closer to one of them and was met by a smiling family of seven, the two parents, an older brother, two girls that could be twins and a young boy and girl.

"That's Jade," he said.

"Yeah, she's everywhere," answered Livewire, "look like this used to be her house before the accident." They didn't know about this place either, did they even know anything about Jade before she was taken in by the Light? Wondered Robin. The team was getting ready to move towards the second floor when the floor under their feet cracked and they landed in the basement. They quickly got up from the ground and were ready to attack, but all they saw was a small basement with some things stacked up against the walls. When Rocket lit up the room, they saw a sign written in what looked like blood and an ominous feeling washed over them. 'This way' it read and an arrow pointed towards a large door.

"I don't think this came with the house," said Artemis as they made their way through the long hall on the other side of the door. In a few seconds, they were at the other end of the hall, their path being blocked by another large door. Aqualad reluctantly pushed it open and they were met by a girl tied up to a chair in the middle of the otherwise empty room. Robin approached her with caution, his hand reaching out to touch her, but before he could touch her, he was knocked over by a shadow. Robin looked up to see who or what he was fighting but all he saw was a black figure leaning over him.

Aqualad rushed to his aid, but Copperhead launched herself at him. He blocked her hit, but she swiftly moved on to his other side and kicked him in the back. Artemis took out an arrow and shot it her direction, the arrow landed right at her feet to get her attention. Livewire wanted to help them, but when she tried running towards them, her path was intercepted by a knife that struck the wall next to her. Livewire turned around to see Victor Zsasz already with another knife in his hand, she moved away before he could throw it and Rocket released a few energy bolts in his direction, getting him away from Livewire.

Taking advantage of the multiple distractions, Red Shot ran up to Nightshade, but the moment he touched her, her skin started dripping and she slowly shifted into Clayface. "Of course," he said right before Clayface tried to smash him. At the last moment, Kid Flash ran in and took him away.

"I had never carried a guy this way," he said.

"This never happened," answered Red Shot.

"Sure, but all I want to say is: I told you it was a trap!" said Kid Flash, putting down Red Shot. The team had managed to stay away from the group of villains that now stood on the other side of the room from them. Victor Zsasz, Copperhead, Clayface and Shadow-thief.

Mount Justice- 9:45 P.M-

After finishing their talk, Batman and Black Canary stepped out of the room they were in and walked towards the mission room where they had left the team, but when they reached the room, they found it empty.

"Where did they go?" asked Black Canary thinking they could still be in the cave, but Batman pulled out a tracking device, "Really?" she asked.

"Wherever they are, I'm going to find them, and when I do I'll bring them back," he explained after getting their location.

"Wow, you really are overbearing," said Black Canary going off after him.

New York- 9:50 P.M-

"Hello kids," said Zsasz, "do you have what you promised?" he asked.

"Where's Nightshade?" asked Red Shot.

"Why do you even care for a bitch like Nightshade?" he asked, "do you even know who she is?" he finished just when Artemis' arrow hit him.

"We know," she said getting another arrow ready. Zsasz smiled at her and threw a knife at the wall right behind her.

"Good," he answered and the fight between them broke out, Zsasz fought Artemis, swinging his knife around trying to cut her, but she kept dodging it. The girl tried to find some distance between them so she could pull out an arrow, but Zsasz made sure to frustrate any of her attempts until Superboy came in between them and threw him against the wall. Before he could get up, an arrow landed next to him and after a few seconds it released thick smoke blocking his view. Zsasz tried to find his way through, but Kid Flash ran up to him and hit him a couple of times before the smoke dispersed.

On the other side of the room, Robin, Aqualad and Zatanna were fighting with Calyface, after their fight with Poison Ivy, they thought they wouldn't see him for a while, but apparently someone had taken him out of jail. Clayface tried to smash the three of them by spreading parts of his body to hit them, but the three of them managed to move away just in time to avoid being hit. Miss Martian and Livewire were fighting Copperhead, the woman was constantly getting away from them, contorting her body as if there were no bones left in it. Copperhead was known for behaving like a snake, with her specialty being poisons and her attire consisting of snake-skin pattern clothes. She had weapons covered in poison that could either kill you or leave you unconscious for a long time; knowing that, the girls tried to stay as far away from her as possible, all the while trying to knock her out.

The team left Shadow-Thief to Red Shot, Camille and Rocket. His completely black suit allowed him to shift through their shadows and reappear where he needed to. The trio was struggling with Shadow-Thief since they were mostly unable to touch him. It wasn't until Red Shot landed a punch, that they were able to take him on while he was still dizzy from the hit. Rocket hit him a few times with her energy blasts and then he went back to camouflaging through the shadows. In that moment, Lex Luthor walked into the room causing the fight to come to a sudden stop. The group of villains gathered around him facing the team.

"Lance. Skye. Great to see you again," he said and then he acknowledged Camille with a little nod. "I think it's about time you return what's mine. So, where is it?" he asked. Silence followed the question, but it was broken the moment Camille grabbed Robin by the collar, and casually pulled out the USB from his belt and threw it to Lex.

"Here you go," she said letting go of Robin and walking up to the other side.

"What are you doing?" asked Red Shot.

"I'm just working for the winning team," she answered and her fists were surrounded in purple mental energy. "Now surrender or we'll just have to do this the hard way," she said.

-Unidentified location-

Nightshade was chained to the ceiling, her hands hanging above her head and a black collar around her neck. Her wounds had closed, but the bruises were still visible and her torn uniform just made her deplorable state more obvious. Her arms hurt since her feet were barely touching the ground. Mercy and one of the guards walked into the room, Luthor's secretary was carrying a syringe with a familiar liquid in it. The same liquid they had used on her when she was eight, the same liquid that had given her powers in the first place. She had been unconscious most of the time so she didn't know if this was going to be the first shot or not, but she wasn't about to stay put. Mercy handed the syringe to the guard who approached her with caution, ready to inject the liquid in her arm, but when he got close enough, Nightshade pulled herself up, wrapped her legs around his neck and snapped it.

Mercy watched as the girl snapped the guard's neck and pressed a button in a small device she was carrying. It sent an electric shock through her body keeping her from moving. "You can keep doing that all you want, this guards come cheap," she said.

"What about you?" asked Nightshade looking up at Mercy. "Are you also cheap, Mercy?" she asked licking the blood from the side of her mouth. Her hair slowly turn to a reddish shade along with her eyes. The chains were covered in a black shadow that snapped them, they did the same with the collar so Mercy wasn't able to stop her without some confrontation. The woman threw a high kick that was blocked by the girl.

"Wait, it can't be. You can't be," she said backing away from the girl. "He told me you were dead," the girl surrounded her fist in darkness and made her way towards Mercy.

"Well technically I'm just a conscious without a body," she said, her voice sounded deeper than usual. With that she surrounded Mercy in darkness and after that all that could be heard was an ear-piercing scream that flooded the room and then died out as quickly as it started. The girl made her way towards her things that laid in the corner of the room and then into the hall, she had just stepped outside of the room when she saw more guards rushing towards her, so with a swift move of her hand she opened something that looked like a portal and before any of them could reach her, she slipped right through the portal that disappeared soon after.

New York-10:40 P.M-

The team was fighting the group, Robin made his way through and tried to attack Lex only to be stopped by a bunch of purple knives flying his way. He managed to duck, but the next wave of knives managed to make small cuts on his body.

"Nightshade risked her life for you," he said.

"No, she's incapable of doing something like that," answered Camille. Suddenly Red Shot came and pushed Camille against the wall, allowing Robin to attack Luthor. He tried to take the USB from him, but Luthor wouldn't let him get close enough. The fight went on, when a portal opened in the middle of the room. Luthor, who was now being held down by Robin turned to look at it, "Oh, you kids are about to see one of my best works," he said. Out of the portal a red-head stepped out.

"Oh no," said Livewire turning to look at her brother.

"Nightfall," he said just loud enough for Aqualad, who was standing right next to him to hear or so he thought because the moment he said that, the red-head turned to look at him. "Okay this is not good," he said backing away from her.

"Look alive, Lance," she said making her way towards him; the memories from the night they escaped the Light's facilities came to mind with just those words, but before she could reach him, Shadow-Thief attacked her keeping her away from the team.

"What is going on?" asked Aqualad taking advantage of the interruption. Red Shot looked at his sister, and before they could answer Luthor stepped into the conversation.

"That is Nightfall, a genetically enhanced human weapon personally trained by the Light to take out the Justice League," explained Lex, "of course, the split personality was not my doing," he said still pinned down by Robin.

"Nightfall, I thought we would never be able to meet," said Shadow-Thief. "I'll be glad to tell everyone that I killed the famed assassin," he said and in his hands a shadow construct in the form of a sword appeared. Nightfall stood there unimpressed by his meek demonstration of power, instead she let him approach her and at the last minute, she closed her fist and the sword disappeared.

"I think you forgot something. You're in _my_ territory," she said. The team watched in horror as Nightfall lifted Shadow Thief's shadow from the ground and clutched it between her fist. His shadow crumpled in her grip and at the same time, Shadow-Thief's screams where muffled by the sound of his bones breaking while his body folded in an unnatural way. After that was over, the girl scanned the room until her eyes landed on Luthor.

"You might want to move before she moves you," he said, but before Robin could do anything, he was surrounded by darkness and thrown against the wall. Lex dust himself off and waited for her to make her way towards him.

"Luthor," she said in a way that caused a chill to run up their spines. "You're going to need a new assistant," she told him. Her voice, was just slightly deeper than Nightshade's voice, but the difference was enough to give them goosebumps, as if her voice was creeping under their skin.

"Too bad, Mercy was rather expensive," he answered. Out of everyone in the room, Luthor was the only one that seemed unfazed by the threatening presence that stood in front of the him. Camille came out to protect him and threw herself at Nightfall, but the girl threw her off with her powers and sent her flying to the other side of the room.

With Camille and Nightfall fighting, and Shadow-Thief dead, the team was fighting Zsasz, Copperhead and Clayface. Artemis aimed an arrow at Copperhead, but the woman swiftly moved away from it and instead threw a venom covered knife in her direction. Miss Martian stopped the knife before it could reach her and returned it to Copperhead, but again she dodged it. Aqualad joined the fight against her, thinking his poison resistance could help him get closer to her, though he wasn't counting on Copperhead being an expert contortionist that wrapped her legs around him and brought him to the ground with ease.

"What's wrong, kid? Never tried this position before?" asked Copperhead with her legs still wrapped tightly around him. It wasn't until Livewire hit her with lightning that Copperhead let go of him.

Robin, Rocket and Zatanna were fighting against Zsasz, he was dead set on killing them and the way he handled his knife, made it hard for them to get close to him. Zatanna tried to cast a spell that would immobilize him, but he would just break out of any spell she tried with him. Rocket on the other hand, focused on disarming him, but for every knife she blasted, he would pull out another one. Then Robin threw a couple of smoke pellets his way and taking advantage of it, he managed to land a couple of hits before the smoke dispersed, but it wasn't until Superboy crashed into him that Zsasz was finally taken out. The group turned around in the direction Superboy had come from; he had been thrown by Clayface who was now fighting Red Shot and Kid Flash.

"Guys, this is not going to work!" Yelled Kid Flash, not really knowing what to do anymore to stop Clayface and the other two. Specially not now since Nightfall had shown up and they weren't clear on whose side she was on.

Camille had managed to pin Nightfall to the ground, and was now trying to land a punch right to her face, but this time Nightfall grabbed her before she could do anything and pulled her down with her. "You're just embarrassing yourself at this point," she said sitting on top of the green-eyed girl. Camille threw her off and launched a series of small knives that created small cuts that healed immediately. "After all that training, is that all you have?" she said right before launching a dark ball that pushed her against the wall.

"Fuck you," she said letting out a small smile. "You didn't even notice."

"You think I didn't know that you were working for The Light? You think all those meaningless missions were just for nothing? I knew you were sneaking out to train with them, I just wanted to see how long you would last," she said standing over her.

"Then why did you save me back there?" she asked, not really finding the strength to get up and keep fighting.

"Have you learned nothing about me? I did it so that I could kill you myself," she said, "you know, a little bit of personal satisfaction. But you should know about that, isn't that the same reason why you killed your mother?" she finished, she smiled as she watched desperation grow on Camille's face. Before the girl could say anything, small shadowy strings started coming out of Nightfall's hand and were getting wrapped around Camille's head.

"Stop!" Yelled Robin. Nightfall turned around to look at him, her red eyes trying to look past the mask. "This is not the Jade that I know. The Jade that I know would be mad, beat her up even, but she wouldn't do that," he said hoping he could talk some sense into the girl that now stood in front of him, but all hope died when Nightfall's lip curled at the end.

"Too bad I'm not her," she said and twisted her hand a little and Camille's head followed the movement. The sound of her neck breaking filled the room; Robin felt his heart sink as Camille's lifeless eyes stared at him. It had been so effortlessly, so…cruel.

"Cold hearted as always," said Luthor. "I guess some things never change," Nightfall looked at Luthor and slowly walked up to him while he played with the USB in his hand. The girl kept her red eyes glued to him and raised her hand; a ball of darkness formed around it, it grew steadily and when she was about to let it go, a batarang hit her hand. It got stuck in her skin, but all the girl did was calmly pull it out.

"This ends now," both Luthor and Nightfall turned around to see Batman and Black Canary glaring at them. Nightfall let her guard down for a second and that was when Black Canary released her Canary cry which made her and everybody else in the room pull back and cover their ears. It even destabilized Clayface turning him into nothing more than goo.

"I had forgotten what an annoying power you have," said Nightfall after it was over. The girl took advantage of the distraction and tried to snatch the USB from Luthor's hand, but he moved away from her and instead allowed for Black Canary to hit Nightfall and push her down to the ground. Luthor tried to leave the scene, but Batman jumped right in front of him and punched him straight in the face, making him drop the USB to the ground. Livewire noticed the USB on the ground and flew down to get it, but Zsasz threw a knife at her that the girl narrowly dodged. Copperhead threw herself towards the USB, but was also intercepted by Zatanna who kicked her on the side and grabbed it before Zsasz had the chance.

She relaxed once she had the USB in her hands and that was when Copperhead came out from behind her and attacked her. Kid Flash ran to her rescue, but a knife knocked the USB out of her hands forcing Kid Flash, Zatanna and Copperhead to dive down to grab it, only for Nightfall to take it at the last minute. The girl had managed to get rid of Black Canary long enough to take it before they could and once she had it in her hands, she threw it to the ground and stepped on it, destroying all the information inside the small piece of plastic.

"Should have done this from the start," she said making sure to hit it one more time. Once the USB was destroyed, the color from her hair started fading back to black and her terrifying red eyes regained their dark brown pigment. Just then, one of the walls in the basement blew up and a fleet of guards came inside. They ran towards Batman and Luthor like flies to a pile of shit; their only objective was taking Luthor out of there. Amidst the confusion, Nightshade ran after them, but she was stopped by Black Canary, who grabbed her and without thinking twice, she punched her across the face.

"Okay, you definitely hit the wrong person," she said massaging her jaw. Right then, the team understood how it worked between Nightfall and Nightshade. Two minds sharing one body, switching back and forth between them.

"Doesn't matter, you'll both feel it," said Black Canary, getting ready to throw another one.

"No, no. In my head there's just laughing," answered Nightshade, bracing for the next one, but Batman stopped her. Both turned to look at him, Black Canary glared, while Nightshade let out a sigh of relieve and that was when the woman used her free hand to punch her in the face. "Ow! My nose, what the fuck is wrong with you?" Batman glared at Black Canary.

"Okay I'm done…for now," she said pulling her hand back.

"What happened?" asked Nightshade.

"What do you mean?" asked Robin, "you killed two people, and you almost attacked us, and now you asked what happened?"

"Oh," she said looking at Red Shot and Livewire who nodded. Nightshade looked past them to see Camille's body propped up against the wall. She walked towards it and just stared at the girl, a blank empty stare was all she could give her. The team was left a bit confused, they didn't know if she was joking or if she truly wasn't aware of what Nightfall did when she had control of her body. Without saying another word, the team and Black Canary walked out with a covered corpse, leaving Nightshade and Batman behind. The girl walked out of the room up to the living room of the house, she looked around the dust covered room. "You might want to leave," she said as a small fire started in the corner.

"You're coming with me," he said. Nightshade went first followed by Batman. It took the old house just a couple of minutes to burn to the ground along with everything inside. The team allowed Nightshade a couple of minutes as she watched her home disappear in the blazing fire; the sound of sirens in the distance forced Nightshade and the others to leave for the cave, but the girl didn't leave without taking one last look at the spot where the house used to be.

Mount Justice-October 6- 12:01 A.M-

The team arrived to the cave, no one had said a word after that, but they all knew what was coming. The silence remained as Nightshade followed Batman into a small private room, they watched her solemnly walk away leaving Lance and Skye behind with the team.

"Are you aware of the consequences this brings?" he asked looking down at her. Nightshade gave him a slight nod. "You lied to us the whole time, and by doing so you put my team in danger. You put the whole League in danger. Not to mention you are also one of the most wanted criminals right now," he continued chewing her out. Nightshade took it all in silence until Batman stopped talking.

"I know," she stopped short.

"Do you? You killed two people tonight, and if I hadn't gotten there in time, you would have killed Luthor," he said.

"I know," she said. Batman let out an exhausted sigh.

"The Justice League can't overlook this," he said. "I'm taking you to Belle Reve, until then you'll be in my custody," he said as he walked in front of Nightshade.

"Wait," she said. "Leave Lance and Skye out of this," she said looking up at Batman, her deep brown eyes were a refreshing change from the red ones he had seen back there, and to top it all off, she said a word he had never heard come out of her mouth. "Please."

"Fine, but they'll still be under League custody," he said. "Come with me."

Nightshade and Batman walked out of the room and back to where the team was; the girl picked up her bag and handed it to Lance. "Take care of my stuff while I'm gone," she said. They didn't need more explanation, they understood that it meant they won't be seeing each other for some time. Lance grabbed Nightshade and pulled her in for a long hug that was only broken by Skye coming in between to hug the girl while tears ran down her face. Nightshade pulled apart from the crying girl and started walking away with Batman; the team moved aside to let her through, she just looked straight forward, ignoring their glances until she reached Rocket who looked away the moment Nightshade looked at her. "Right," she mumbled under her breath and followed Batman out of the room. Robin followed the girl with his eyes until she was out of sight, he felt an empty feeling in his stomach, but he just couldn't understand why.


	19. Prison Break

Belle Reve- October 8- 9:35 A.M-

"I really, honestly thought you were kidding," said Nightshade dressed in an orange prison suit as she walked in front of Batman, he glared at her without saying a word, "but by the time I realized you don't make jokes it was a bit too late," she said looking back at him, raising her handcuffed hands and pointing at the black collar on her neck. Seeing that he didn't answer and that he wouldn't answer they kept walking in silence through the halls of Belle Reve. Each time they passed a different cell, the women inside would all press themselves against the glass door to check if what they were seeing was true, among them were Poison Ivy, Cheetah and Copy Cat. Nightshade looked into their cells, the only thing separating them from her was that scrawny looking glass wall with tiny breathing holes in it.

"You do realize I'll get killed in here, right?" she said occasionally eyeing the cells really trying not to mind the constant glares and mocking smiles.

"I'm aware of that, either way the collar keeps them from doing anything to you. Keep in mind it also works the other way around," he glared again just as they stopped in front of an empty cell; Nightshade let out a sigh of relieve, at least she could sleep without worrying over whether or not her cellmate would kill her. "See you in ten years," he said as she walked into the cell and it shut behind her, the handcuffs dropped to the floor. Nightshade walked up to the bed and threw herself on top of it.

Before she knew it, it was lunch time and a guard came to fetch her, given the fact that she had put a lot of people in Belle Reve, and that it was obvious they would hold a grudge against her she was to be accompanied by someone every time she stepped out of her cell. The two of them walked into the dining hall and the moment she set foot into the room, all of the women turned to look at her. Some of them eyed her with spite, others with reserve and others with vicious eyes. Nightshade and the guard stood in line to get her lunch when the guard turned to look at her and let out a small giggle.

"Man isn't it good to be popular," she said mockingly, Nightshade glared at her and took her tray to an empty table in the back. Shortly after, Cheetah, Poison Ivy and Copy Cat, with her burnt arm uncovered, showed up at the table. The guard moved closer to her, but Nightshade didn't even bother to look up, she just kept eating until Copy Cat spoke.

"What happened, Nightshade?" she asked with a sarcastic tone, "cat got your tongue?" Nightshade looked up, eyed her and then went back to her plate. This made Copy Cat mad, so she grabbed a fork and stabbed the table right next to Nightshade's hand. The guard reached down and took out her gun, but Cheetah kicked it away before punching her in the face.

"Thank you, I've been dying to do that all afternoon, even though I've known her for like an hour," said Nightshade looking up at Cheetah. Laughing she tried to punch Nightshade, but she grabbed her fist and twisted it, "won't you leave me alone? My friend just died," she said and got up from the table, Copy Cat laughed at the statement and kicked Nightshade.

"Please, do you really expect me to believe that you are actually capable of something so human as grieving?" she said throwing a punch that was blocked by Nightshade, Copy Cat kept talking and fighting Nightshade and soon enough Cheetah budged into the fight only to receive a punch from Nightshade making her back away for a while. Poison Ivy grabbed one of the forks and threw it at her, but the girl dodged it, and as she leaned down, she took a lunch tray and threw it at Poison Ivy. Soon she found herself surrounded by more criminals, they ganged up on her and managed to keep her on the ground long enough to hit her a few times. Nightshade managed to shake them off and went back to taking them out individually as fast as she could, but after being thrown into a table, Nightshade took some of the forks on it and used them to pin some of the women to the wall by their clothes.

"Anyone else would like to try?" she asked looking at the others that were still sitting down on their chairs, and letting go of Copy Cat.

"I would," said a voice coming from the balcony that overlooked the dining hall, Nightshade raised her head to see Amanda Waller looking down at her. She held out a small device with a button on it, and after she pressed it, her collar started beeping before giving Nightshade an electric shock. The girl tried to rip it off using her hands but the electricity knocked her out before the collar would even budge. By the time Nightshade regained consciousness she was in a completely different room; still the same cold and hard floor from which she pushed herself up, but once she looked up there were no tables or people, just white walls that made the light bounce from them into her eyes which made it hard for her to open them completely. The sound of a door sliding open made her turn around only to see Amanda Waller walking up to her. I really wonder if Batman knows about this place, she thought as Amanda Waller walked closer; she suddenly stopped a few feet away from her and examined Nightshade from head to toe. Her stern look reminded her of a certain caped crusader.

"Robbery, aggravated assault, arson, vandalism, obstruction of justice, kidnaping and let's not forget about murder, and you just turned fifteen," she said walking closer to Nightshade while waving around a big file, "the list keeps going, but I don't have enough time to name them all," she finished standing next to Nightshade.

"I'm impressed. Honestly," said Nightshade while a smile formed on her face, "now, would you mind telling me how you got those files?"

"You should be locked up in here for the rest of your shitty life, but thanks to your work with the Justice League you get special treatment," she said while Nightshade's smile grew wider, "you must be thinking it's nice to be you right now. After that stunt you pulled in the dining hall no one is going to bother you again and aside from that, you will be out in no time. Well guess what, I'll make sure you never leave this place," she said, the look on Nightshade's face changed, her mocking smile turned into a serious frown. "That is unless you decide to help me out with a small mission," just then the door opened and some guards brought in Black Spider, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Killer Frost and Killer Croc.

"Hey! Let go of me!" said Killer Frost kicking the guard in the shin.

"Criminals?" she asked, and then her eyes landed on Harley, "insane criminals," she corrected herself.

"What's the big idea, Waller?" asked Captain Boomerang looking at Amanda, "why are we back here?" he asked and then his eyes landed on Nightshade, the rest stood there looking at Nightshade in silence until Deadshot started talking.

"You are using kids now, Waller?" he asked Amanda who looked at Nightshade before answering.

"This kid here just beat up half the women's population of Belle Reve, and I have no doubt she could do that again," she said with a smile, not a happy smile, but a challenging and somewhat threatening smile. One of the guards handed Waller a black bag that she threw at Nightshade. "Get changed," she ordered her. Nightshade followed Waller to a small room where she opened the bag to find her uniform and weapons; the girl changed, put her belt on, her retractable sword hanged from her hip and her two guns were on her thighs. The two of them walked back to the others, and the moment Harley laid eyes on the fully suited Nightshade, she jumped at Nightshade and pinned her to the floor.

"Oh, Nighty Night!" yelled Harley in her usual perky voice. "We haven't played in a long time!" she said throwing a punch. Nightshade moved her head away and Harley ended up punching the floor making a small hole in the cement. Nightshade's eyes widened when she saw the mark; recovering she wrapped her legs around Harley's neck and pulled her down to the floor before getting up from the ground. Harley got back on her feet and tried to reach Nightshade who threw a fireball at her, only to be dodged by Harley.

"Took you long enough to notice," said Nightshade throwing another that hit Harley and sent her flying against the wall. A bullet was fired in her direction but hit the wall instead, it's not that she had dodged it, it just wasn't aimed at her. Nightshade turned around to see Deadshot with his wrist gun aiming at her this time. Nightshade straightened up and dust herself off, making sure to keep her eyes on Deadshot. While Nightshade was holding a long staring contest with him, Killer Frost threw a few icicles at her, but the girl put up a fire wall between her hand the projectiles. Next, Killer Croc launched himself at her and pinned the girl down to the ground. Nightshade shot a fireball right at his face forcing him to back away from her. She turned around to look at Captain Boomerang and Black Spider.

"Don't look at me," said Boomerang, "Trickster told me what you did to the Rogues. I'm not risking it," he said. Black Spider just shrugged and stayed beside Boomerang. Killer Frost stepped forward, and froze her lower part, keeping her from moving. Nightshade reached down for a knife, but Killer Frost froze her hand before she could grab it.

"You're a great source of heat," she said getting closer to her.

"You know I recently met someone that did the same thing," she said looking at her hand, "it didn't end well for him," she said as she crashed her hand against the wall and the ice shattered in small pieces leaving, of course, some cuts in her hand that started healing almost instantly. The ice around her feet started melting and while Nightshade was distracted, Waller kicked a metal pipe in Harley's direction. Harley grabbed the pipe and stood up, ready to hit Nightshade when the girl kicked her in the stomach, grabbed the pipe, and threw the pipe towards Deadshot who was aiming at her; the pipe distracted him while she ran up to him and kneed him in the face.

"Sorry, I'm not used to being at the other end of the gun, it puts me a little on edge," she said standing beside him, playing with the pipe in her hand.

"Welcome to Task Force X," said Waller. They looked at Nightshade and Waller standing side by side, there was something really unnerving about that pairing.

"Whatever," she said. "What do you need me for?"

"I need you all for another mission, this time in Markovia," said Waller, but all Nightshade could think of was that the way she talked about the missions resembled Batman's way of doing it, "There have been reports that the Markovia army is testing some very dangerous weapon that could be used against the Unite States. Stop them and destroy the weapons before they are used," she exclaimed.

"You want us to break into Markovia? That's one of the most dangerous countries in the world, we'll be dead before we make it to the weapon," said Captain Boomerang walking up to Amanda.

"That's why I'm sending you. What better choice than a group of dangerous and disposable criminals for a suicide mission," she said with a smile and started to walk out, "don't forget that with the push of a button your head goes boom," she said and the door closed behind her. Nightshade examined the necks of the group, there was a scar in the form of an X in the back, so she assumed that was the bomb Waller was talking about.

Markovia- October 12- 9:26 P.M-

"Who would have thought walking down in the sewers of Markovia would be so much fun!" squealed Harley as she splashed around the dirty water making the rest of the group turn away in disgust. Nightshade walked in the front right next to Deadshot. Killer Frost, Black Spider and Captain Boomerang where right behind them while Killer Croc walked behind Harley. The place stunk and the floor they were walking on felt a bit slippery, and Harley splashing literal shit around didn't make it any better.

"Why is someone like you here? You're clearly not one of the bad guys, at least not in the traditional sense," said Deadshot turning his head to look at Nightshade, she smiled and without looking at him she answered.

"I made some very powerful people very mad," they kept walking for a while until they reached their destination, "are you sure it's here?" she asked looking at Deadshot who nodded as he climbed the stairs and then moved away the sewer's lid. He stuck his head out and made sure they weren't being watched, he got out and waited for the rest of them to be out before putting the lid back in place. The group then climbed to the top of one of the buildings and found the location of the military base. "So, what's the plan?" she asked looking back at the group.

"We go back into the sewers," said Deadshot. "That's the only way we can get by unnoticed," he told as they started going back down.

"I was afraid he would say that," said Killer Frost. Nightshade looked back at the ground, it had been hard for her to go up, but she couldn't let them see her fear of heights so she just took a deep breath and held it until she was down on the ground. After a long journey down the sewers, the group finally emerged next to one of the hangars in the military base. They sneaked around the back and allowed Boomerang to make a hole in the back wall so they could crawl inside. Once inside the base, the group hid behind some crates that were piled up against the walls, though Killer Croc's huge body made that a harder task for them.

The hangar was full of Markovian soldiers running around the place. It seemed as if they were getting ready for something, something big. Deadshot noticed that a lot of soldiers were coming in and out of a door on the far side of the room, but to get there, they would have to pass through the hall swarming with armed soldiers. "Hey kid, are you ready to show me if you're able to use those things?" He asked glancing down at the guns in her thighs. Nightshade smiled and took them out.

"Only if you are," she said. Realizing what Deadshot had in mind, Harley prepared her own gun, and Killer Croc got ready to charge at the crowd. He was the first one to go out and startle the soldiers, behind him, Black Spider, Killer Frost and Captain Boomerang took out some soldiers, and then Harley, Nightshade and Deadshot made their way through. Harley just shot away until she ran out of bullets and then she started using her mallet to take out soldiers before they could shoot her. Meanwhile, Nightshade and Deadshot made their way through not wasting a single bullet and recharging as little as possible so they could save some bullets for later. One of the guards managed to sneak up on Nightshade, but before he could reach her, he was impaled by an ice spear that came out of the ground. The girl looked at Killer Frost, who had impaled more than one person in the room. It took them a while to finally wipe out the room, but when they did, the group found themselves in front of the mysterious door.

"I guess you really are the world's best marksman," said Nightshade while she still tried to catch her breath.

"You're not bad either. Could use some work, but not bad," he said opening the door and letting Nightshade in first. The group made their way through the hallway that they emptied as they ran into more soldiers, after a few minutes of walking they heard a loud explosion coming from the outside followed by a familiar laughter. Nightshade hopped on the crates and looked out the small window; unable to contain his curiosity, Captain Boomerang followed.

"What the bloody hell?" asked Captain Boomerang looking down at the team that was prowling their way through some soldiers that didn't seem to be from the Markovia Army.

"Bialya soldiers…" said Deadshot, who had joined them.

"They're screwed," said Nightshade looking at them.

"Who? The kids?" Asked Boomerang.

"No, the soldiers…and us if they find us," she answered getting down from the crates. "Come on, let's keep going before they decide to search the hangars." They group followed her through the hallway until they reached some stone stairs that lead to a cave. It seemed looked like the hangars had been built over the cave in order to hide it. Harley sprinted down the stairs first, forcing the others to rush after her in case there was something waiting for them down there; and once they got there, they found Harley staring at a blond man in a brown trench coat and another man dressed in a rag suit with a long cape that matched.

"Look what I found," said Harley pointing at the two, "a hottie and a homeless guy,"

"And I found some criminals," said the blond guy in a thick British accent, and then his eyes landed on Nightshade, "and a kid," he continued.

"I swear these superheroes are running out of costume ideas," said Deadshot aiming his gun at the man in the cape.

"I'd be careful if I were you," said the man lighting up a cigarette.

"Why? What's he goin' to do? Choke us to death? Ya have got to be kidding," said Harley.

"Shut up," said Nightshade looking at both of them.

"Why? These two look like dipsticks," said Captain Boomerang, prompting Nightshade to bury her face in her palms. The man smiled at the group and took another puff of his cigarette. The man in the cape stepped forward, and without saying anything, Nightshade simply stepped aside. The man's cape extended all the way to Captain Boomerang and wrapped itself around his foot, he was dragged through the floor until a bullet brushed past his face, distracting him and letting go of Boomerang who ran back to the group.

"Criminals sticking up for each other? I'm not going to lie, that's refreshing," said the English man finally putting out his cigarette.

"See? I told ya he was gonna try and choke us to death," Harley Quinn said in her squeaky voice.

"That's not what I do," said the man in the cape.

"Look at that, it talks," said Deadshot lowering his wrist. "Who are you people?" he asked. Constantine stepped forward, his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face.

"I'm John Constantine, and this is Ragman. His suit allows him to take corrupted souls…. like yours," he said just as the rags in his suit started moving towards the group, but they moved away now knowing what it did. He managed to grab Harley's foot though and started pulling her towards his suit; Killer Croc reached out to grab her hands, but the suit caught them both.

"If this is a joke, then it's not funny!" said Harley. While they were both being pulled in, Nightshade ran up to them and slashed the pieces of cloth freeing them both. "C'mon, let's bash their heads in," said Harley walking up to them with her mallet, but Nightshade stopped her.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked. "Powerful military weapons are certainly not up your alley,"

"They are if they come from a magical source," answered Constantine.

"What are you talking about?" asked Deadshot.

"The suit felt an extremely evil presence in this facility," Ragman cut into the conversation. "It's coming from this place," he said.

"Then we're looking for the same thing, so why don't you back off and let us take care of this one," said Killer Frost.

"Oh yeah, because I'm about to leave the fate of the world to a group of bloody idiots," said Constantine. In that moment, Black Spider shot a web to Constantine's feet and Killer Croc knocked Ragman to the ground, allowing the group to run past them deeper into the building. They kept running until they met another group of soldiers, they aimed their guns at them, making them back up a little only to meet Constantine and Ragman behind them. When the soldiers saw the other two, they opened fire prompting Nightshade to run for cover, Constantine followed her and cast a spell that pulled her out of her cover and up in the air. "For someone with such a bad reputation, you are quite mellow," he said, while Nightshade tried not to look down. Another explosion was heard outside followed by Miss Martian's voice coming from outside the hangar.

"Look, I really don't want to be here, so how about we work together for now to stop whoever is doing this and then we can focus on other things," she said glaring at Constantine, but before he could answer, the suit grabbed her foot and pulled her down. It started pulling her in, so the girl looked up to Constantine.

"Sorry love, but I don't make deals with criminals," he told her. Nightshade let out a sigh and slowly watched as Ragman stopped pulling her in. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I can't. There…there's no soul to be taken into the suit. I mean, there is, but it just doesn't belong to her," Ragman explained. Nightshade smiled and slowly got up from the ground, the group had already taken out the soldiers and they were now looking at them.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm just a mind inside a borrowed body," she said and creating a fire cage around Ragman. "If you don't want to work together, then stay out of the way," she said and ran away with the others. Killer Frost created an ice wall to block their path as they made their way to the next room.

They didn't even make it to the next room when Constantine and Ragman were already after them. Constantine cast a spell that blocked their path, but Killer Croc just ran through making way for the others. Once again Killer Frost blocked their path with ice spikes, but Constantine broke through them with a spell. The woman stayed behind trying to impale either one of them, but Killer Croc lifted her up and continued running with the others until all of them reached the last room in the cave. There was a woman standing in the middle of what seemed to be a ritual site, there were candles lighting up the whole room along with some masked people surrounding the woman.

"When Waller said they were creating a weapon…did she know it was a magical one?" Captain Boomerang whispered while they hid behind some crates. "I mean this is worse than anything she's ever asked us to do," he said watching the woman chant some words.

"Who's that?" Asked Harley ignoring Captain Boomerang's ranting.

"That's Tala," the group heard Constantine's voice coming from behind them, "Bloody hell, now thanks to you we got here late," he said. Deadshot turned around to look at him and even though Constantine couldn't see his expression behind the mask, he was sure he was glaring at him. "So? What was your plan?" he asked.

"We had a plan?" asked Harley looking at Deadshot. He shook his head. Constantine's mouth dropped to the floor.

"You mean you came here without a plan? What kind of team are you?" he asked.

"We're not a team," they all answered at the same time.

"And it's not like we wanted to come here," said Killer Frost under her breath.

"If we could somehow manage a diversion, we could take down whatever that woman is planning," said Ragman in one of his rare inputs into the conversation. A new explosion outside got everyone's attention, including Tala's; the woman stopped the ritual and examined the room before getting one of her followers to go out and investigate what was going on. The man nodded and quickly made his way out, past the group, but he only got so far before Deadshot grabbed him and striped him off his robe and mask and left him there, knocked out behind the crates with the others.

"Why do you get to go? I'm the only one in this bloody room that can stop Tala," said Constantine standing up to look directly into Deadshot's eyes.

"Constantine," said Nightshade before throwing him a robe and a mask. He wondered how she was able to get them, but then she saw the unconscious, naked man laying down next the her. The man put it on top of his own clothes and slipped the mask on.

"When we give the signal, you come out and attack," said Deadshot, "make sure no one gets out of here alive. Boomerang, Killer Frost, lock the doors and any other exit you can find," he ordered.

"Leave Tala to me, I need her alive," said Constantine before the two of them walked towards the circle, Tala asked them what was going on, but Deadshot just gave her a bullshit excuse about one of the soldiers accidentally activating a bomb in the camp. While the ritual continued, Constantine and Deadshot did everything they could to slow it down, by messing up sometimes. The air grew tense around the two men, and the others were staring to get suspicious of them, but it wasn't until Constantine started using magic to block Tala's spells, that the woman identified him.

"Ah. Constantine!" said the woman, "I should have known it was you!" she said turning around and summoning some shadows that pulled the man's mask off revealing his dirty blond hair. The Shadows pulled him up while Tala examined him. "How did you know I was here?" she asked eyeing him, the slits on each side of her dress showed her legs with every step she took. It wasn't until Tala stood in front of Constantine again, that she heard a distinctive click.

"Okay lady, let him go," said Deadshot taking of his robe while pointing his wrist guns at her.

"Let's go," said Captain Boomerang stepping out from behind the crates.

"Wait! What about the signal?" asked Harley. Nightshade took out her gun and shot one of Tala's followers.

"There, that's your signal, now move it," she said. Harley smiled and ran off after them, she used her mallet to smash a few heads in the hard rock floor, while trying to avoid the gunshots, the flying men and women and the occasional ice stalagmite that spurred form the ground. Killer Croc jumped out from behind her, scaring a few of the cultists that tried to run away, but he caught them and ripped their heads off with ease using his multiple rows of teeth. Tala, Constantine and Deadshot stood in the middle of the bloodbath, the woman watched all of her followers hit the cold ground, but still she kept Constantine tangled up in shadows.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but this team of yours might not be such a stupid idea after all," said Constantine ignoring Tala and looking at Deadshot. He shrugged and his ear buzzed.

" _ **What's taking you so long?"**_ It was Waller's voice, the last person he wanted to hear.

" _ **We're taking care of it,"**_ he answered, not moving his wrist from Tala's head.

" _ **Maybe this will work as a reminder of who you're working for,"**_ she said and after a while, the back of Black Spider's neck started beeping before exploding and taking out some cultist that stood near him. Deadshot cursed under his breath, and a smile grew on Tala's face; she used the distraction to create some shadows that pulled Deadshot away from her and into the wall on the far side of the room. Tala raised her hand and from the ground, dozens of shadow figures emerged. The shadow figures attacked the group, and were even over taking them as more of them came out of the ground. She walked towards Constantine, but a fireball passed by, just inches away from their faces.

"You could have moved that little bit to the left," said Constantine looking at Nightshade.

"Yeah, but you're very annoying," she answered, her hair had started changing to a blood-red color and, the girl took of her mask to reveal her now red eyes that stared at Tala. "You're stepping on my territory," said Nightfall. The girl, closed her fist and the shadows around Constantine disappeared, freeing him.

"And just who are you?" she asked, now focusing her attention on the girl, while Constantine and Deadshot ran over to undo the spell Tala had started.

"People call me Nightfall," she answered moving her other hand to have a shadow emerge from the ground and grab Tala's ankle. She clenched her fist and Tala's creatures disappeared, allowing the other some room to breathe.

"AH! It's the real Nighty Night!" said Harley.

"Nightfall? The girl that tricked Simon Culp into letting her have access to the shadowlands?" asked Tala as she stepped on the shadow Nightfall had created.

"Yeah…that one," she simply said before unleashing a shadow beam that was met by Tala's own beam. Nightfall raised her free hand and Tala's shadow moved forcing her to move and get thrown into the wall. "People always forget to tell the other half of that story…I also killed Culp," she said walking closer to Tala, the woman remained with her back against the wall as Nightfall approached her, only to be pulled back at the last second by Ragman. He was pulling her towards his cape, when an ice spear ripped the cloth.

"Can't let you do that after she just saved our asses," said Killer Frost.

"The soul of the sinner must be cleansed," said Ragman trying to grab Nightfall again, but the girl smiled and her hair returned to its original color, along with her eyes. Ragman let go of her and glared under the hood of his cape before walking towards Tala.

"It's over Tala, you're coming with us," said Constantine, the woman looked over at Nightshade and then at him and nodded as she got up from the ground. Ragman grabbed Tala and walked her off while Constantine said goodbye.

"I really mean it when I say I don't want to see any of you again," he said. "Specially you, Kid. You're playing a very dangerous game," he told Nightshade before following Ragman.

"Hey! Don't leave! Why don't ya give me your number hot stuff," yelled Harley, following the three of them with her eyes.

"So, the powerful people you made angry where—" Deadshot started but Nightshade cut him off.

"The Justice League, the Injustice League, The Light, you name it," she said pulling out something from her belt. "Including those guys outside blowing shit up," she answered. "Are you not going to try and escape Waller?" she asked back, the group went silent.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" asked Killer Frost pointing at the back of her neck, Nightshade pulled out a small black device.

"This is a signal disruptor, I could damage the signal on the bomb and you would be free to leave," she said, the other waited for her to continue, "but it's going to hurt,"

"Wait, what do you get out of this?" asked Harley crossing her arms over her chest. God, she might be crazy, but she's not stupid.

"I get you people to owe me a favor. So, what do you say?" she asked them holding the disruptor up. Deadshot leaned down and showed Nightshade the back of his neck. She pressed the device against the X and he received an electric shock that burned out the signal receiver in the device. Quickly the others did the same and she finished up with Harley.

"Woo! Do it again!" she said taking the disruptor off her hands and giving herself another shock. She went to give it back, but Nightshade pushed it back in her hands.

"You keep it," she told her.

"Aren't you going to do it?" asked Captain Boomerang.

" _ **What is going on? What are you trying?" said Waller on the comm. They could hear the clicking of the button "You will pay for this one," she kept going,**_ then they kept hearing a clicking sound as she pressed the button to activate the bombs, but nothing happened. The group dropped their comms on the floor and then smashed them.

"I don't have to. Waller could never put that on me," she answered lifting up her hair revealing a neck without an X.

"What made you so sure?" asked Captain Boomerang eyeing Nightshade.

"The Justice League put me in Belle Reve under special conditions. If I were to die in Belle Reve Batman would be all over the place in no time," she answered, "if not, then Lex Luthor would like to know what happened to the girl he spent so much money on to turn into a weapon…" and explosion was heard outside, "I should get back now," she said looking at her wristwatch.

"Powerful people indeed," said Deadshot, "then I guess we all owe you one kid, I may be a criminal, but I never go back on my word," after that they parted ways and Nightshade made her way through the camp, she made sure to look out the window one more time to see the team finally getting thing back under control before leaving the place. When she got back to Belle Reve, she was greeted by no one other than Amanda Waller.

"I knew you'd be back. How dare you sabotage me like that? Where did you get a signal disrupter that strong? Justice League?" Waller accompanied Nightshade to the dressing room where she put her orange suit back on and tossed the old, ripped, gray and black suit at Waller.

"Lexcorp," said Nightshade watching the surprise on Amanda's face "I'm going to need a new one, actually two more suits would be alright," she said walking past her and pointing to the suit in her hands.

"You know that conceited attitude of yours will bring you more trouble. It's a dangerous game you're playing," she yelled after her but Nightshade kept walking. She was greeted at her cell by a new guard that would be taking care of her and she was walked into her cell one more time.


	20. Out Of Time

Star City- October 20- 2:34 P.M-

The Mayor of Star City was standing in front of the new museum that was being opened in the city, he was energetically giving his speech about how important it was to create a cultural space for the future generations of Star City. He wanted to make it very clear that education was the key to a better city with better people and that the museum was merely the beginning of a new Star City. As he went on, a slow clapping was heard among the audience and a tall man with small round glasses, a top hat and a fine wooden cane made his way towards the mayor. People started to move away from him, some would even run away.

"To think that a scumbag like you would get to be Major of Star City," he said in a hoarse voice, he reached out to grab him, "but then again, who is better than you to run a city full of criminals like me," he said and just as he was about to touch him an arrow came in through the gap between the major and him.

"Clock King, now that's a face I haven't seen in a while," said Green Arrow as he took out another arrow from his quiver. And shot again, but to his surprise the Clock King moved away and the arrow hit the ground.

"Green Arrow, I think that you should know by now that I'm aware of your timing. I know exactly how long it takes you to take out an arrow from your quiver, and how long it takes for it to reach its target," he said with a smirk planted on his face. Green Arrow took out another arrow and shot again and again, but Clock king just kept on dodging them.

"I'm going to wipe that smug look on your face just you wait," said Green Arrow jumping down from the building he was in. and that was when Clock King took out a trigger and held his thumb over the button.

"Not so fast, you wouldn't want anything to happen to our major, would you?" he asked looking over at the man still standing in the podium. The Major gulped and looked underneath the podium to see a small bomb taped to it. "Now, I advise you call in some back up, because you are going to be picking up his pieces all over the main street," he finished talking and was about to press the button when another arrow hit the trigger and pinned it to the pavement damaging it.

"Back up is here," said Artemis jumping down next to Green Arrow. Clock King looked at the girl, he had never seen her before. Her timing was, of course, different from Green Arrows and therefore he was unable to predict her moves. Just as his smirk dropped from his face Clock King started to run away only to be stopped by and arrow that pinned his clothes down and then another one that knocked off his cane. The next thing he knew, was that he was being placed inside a police car watching as Green Arrow congratulated Artemis and finally the smirk was back on his face.

"Who was that creep?" asked Artemis as she and Green Arrow reached mount Justice.

"Just another psycho, his name is Clock King. A pain in the ass," he said. Suddenly as the two walked in he caught a glimpse of Artemis looking over at the couch, he knew who she was looking for. "I'm sure she's alright," he said placing his hand on her shoulder and receiving a faint smile in return. Just then the rest of the team came into the cave, all tired and a little beat after a mission against Bizzaro in Metropolis. Ever since Nightshade left the team would spend more time in the cave than before. Batgirl sometimes joined them for missions, and helped them out a little, but it was still weird not having Nightshade around; oddly enough, they had gotten used to her.

Happy Harbor-October 23- 6:32 P.M-

Clock King attacked the town while the only ones available were Superboy, Rocket, Zatanna and Miss Martian. The rest of the team, Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad and Artemis had left to be with their respective mentors on different missions. The team had been called in after a threat was televised saying that there were four bombs that would go off simultaneously in three hours unless they were found. The team divided in two groups, Miss Martian and Zatanna searched around the city for the bombs while Superboy and Rocket looked all over for Clock King. Needless to say, their job got pretty hard with the city being evacuated and citizens running around in panic.

" _ **Any luck with the bombs?"**_ asked Rocket flying over the city while Superboy went on foot jumping from building to building.

" _ **Nothing so far on the west side,"**_ answered Zatanna, there was a long pause and then Superboy answered.

" _ **I didn't find Clock King, but I found one of the bombs. I'll defuse it and then I'll keep looking for Clock King. We have less than thirty minutes,"**_ he said looking down at a gym bag with a bomb inside, and the number that kept going down. Rocket swallowed and started going faster, until she spotted a man that was going down the street against the crowd, he looked around before getting inside one of the buildings, and that was when Rocket saw his face.

" _ **Guys, I found Clock King, get the other bombs and once you are done meet me on the east side of the city, near the park. Nightshade, get your ass here, I'll need your help,"**_ there was a long pause.

" _ **Rocket, Nightshade is not with us anymore,"**_ said Miss Martian.

" _ **Right. Sorry,"**_ she said shaking her head and rapidly gliding down and landing next to the door. Rocket opened the door and stepped into the apartment building, she walked down the hall; all of the rooms had been emptied, all of them but one in the second floor that kept the door closed. She pressed herself against the door and when she didn't hear anything she opened it to find a normal apartment. Looking around, she saw a living room and a dining room and there were pictures of a woman everywhere, so she kept walking and opened the door to the bedroom and the only thing she could see were some computers in the back, a video camera and a wall full of pictures of the same woman, the mayor, some other people she didn't recognize and finally some members of the Justice League and everyone from the team.

After a moment of silence, there was a beeping sound coming from one of the computers, so Rocket ran up to it and found the timer counting down, on the side was the map with the marked locations to where the bombs were, _**"Guys, one of the bombs in the boulevard, the other one is in the harbor underneath the boardwalk and the final bomb is…"**_ she paused.

" _ **Rocket? Are you okay?"**_ asked Miss Martian, _**"I have one, and I'm defusing it,"**_

" _ **The other one is here,"**_ finished Rocket going off to search the apartment, until she found the bomb in one of the closets, there were only forty seconds left so she sat down and opened the back of the bomb to find some cables, "god, where is Robin when you need him," she said and closing her eyes she used her powers to cut one of the wires. The timer stopped the countdown and forwarded to the last three seconds so Rocket put a force field around the bomb and it went off inside the force field.

" _ **Shit. Is everyone alright?"**_ she asked over the comm.

" _ **I'm fine,"**_ answered Superboy.

" _ **Me too,"**_ said Miss Martian.

" _ **So am I, did you find Clock King?"**_ sked Zatanna.

" _ **He somehow got away, but you need to see this. And someone should really call Batman,"**_ she said turning her attention back to the newspaper clippings and the pictures.

Mount Justice- October 25- 4:45 P.M-

Robin and Batman stormed into the room, they both had serious looks on their faces and while that wasn't a rare thing in Batman, a serious Robin made everyone slightly uncomfortable. As soon as they walked in the team got up from the couch and followed Batman into the other room for briefing.

"As you already know, Clock King has been spotted in every major city in the past few days. Although we haven't been able to catch him, he was spotted today in Star City the mission was assigned to the team since he has yet to figure out how you work," he told them. "Proceed with caution," the silence that followed only fed the ominous feeling that warning had left.

"Call in if you find trouble," said Red Tornado as the teens walked out the door, before leaving Robin gave Batman one last glare and then he was gone. Lately the air between them had been tense and every time they were in the same room, Robin would keep his distance from Batman and shoot him a glare or two. The team had clearly noticed this, but no one dared ask what was going on between the two of them.

Star City- 5:56 P.M-

The team arrived to Star City Square and were greeted by a panicked crowd running towards them, once it was cleared, they could see Clock King standing in the middle of it with a bomb tied around a man.

"I guess it was just a matter of time before you came to find me, but at least let me tell you what all of this is for. It all started a few years ago. I was just a simple man trying to take care of his terminally ill sister, but this doctor here had other plans," he said pointing at the man with the bomb tied around his chest, "one miss diagnose cost my sister her life and my freedom. But he isn't the only one to blame. The chief of police, and the judge that sentenced me, not to mention the major. So now, as part of my little test all of you can chose to save either these four people or disable the other five bombs I hid in the city, but by my calculations on your abilities, it will take a while, especially since it seems I counted an extra one… Oh well, the clock is ticking," he said with a smile on his face as a smoke cloud wrapped itself around him and helped him disappear. They all knew who he meant, they used to be a team of nine.

"Is it just me or did the Justice League really underestimate this guy?" asked Kid Flash looking over at the doctor while Zatanna was working on a way to disable the bomb.

"Rocket, is there anything you remember that could help us with the locations?" asked Aqualad looking over his shoulder.

"Well there where pictures of a woman, I'm going to assume it was his sister, some paper clippings about the case and other more recent ones involving us. But I'm sorry, that's all I remember," she said looking down at the ground.

"I got the location of the second bomb, it's over the coast, and I'm getting the signal from the others. I'll try to jam it to give us more time, but that means I will have to stay put," said Robin using the computer on his wrist to track down the bombs and little red dots started appearing on his screen.

"We'll have to fan out if we want to make it on time. Kid Flash, you take the furthest point form here, Miss Martian go to the west side, and Superboy take the one on the north side. Rocket and Artemis there are two near the station, take those. I'll go for the one on the coast, Zatanna you keep working on that, Robin stay there and Nightshade there's two on the south, do you think you can….." Aqualad went silent after he saw the whole team staring at him. "Right. Let's go, we still have two more bombs to cover," he finished and each one took off.

After a while Zatanna finally managed to disable the bomb tied around the doctor's chest and so she walked up to Robin and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You know you can talk to me anytime, right?" she told him, but he shoved her hand away.

"Now is not the time Z. There are two bombs in the south part of Star City, I don't know if they are tied to someone or not, but make it fast. I'm still trying to find Clock King," he said. Zatanna released a big sigh and started walking away.

"I'm here for when you're ready to talk," she said levitating away from him with a spell. Robin glared at the computer as he looked at the countdown while on the side he was searching for any trace of Clock King.

On the other side of the city, Kid Flash had found the bomb and was trying to disable it, it had some cables tangled all over, and all of them had different colors. He gulped and started moving the bomb all over trying to see if some of the cables connected directly to the trigger of the bomb, after a while he managed to find the blue cable that lead directly to the trigger so he took a deep breath and cut it. He waited a while and when it didn't go off he let out a huge sigh of relieve.

" _ **Hey Rob, give me the location of the other bomb, I'm done here,"**_ he started but then he heard a loud beeping sound coming from the bomb, so he looked at it and found a second timer was hidden under the cables and this timer was rapidly approaching zero. Kid Flash grabbed the bomb and started running away towards the coast where Aqualad was taking care of his bomb that was tied around the Mayor. Kid Flash ran past him and into the water. His speed made it possible for him to run over the water so that when the timer got to cero he left the bomb in the middle of the ocean and it exploded far away from the people.

"Man, I so deserve a snack," he said walking up to a glaring Aqualad, "oh so this one is tied to the mayor," he said.

"Yes, and I can't figure out how to defuse the bomb, what happened to you?" he asked as he reached out to separate the bomb from the mayor but he noticed a heat sensor.

"Well my bomb had a second bomb so by disconnecting one I activated the other one," he explained before leaning down to look at what Aqualad was doing and then he saw the heat sensor on the bomb, "Oh man this is bad. How do you wanna do this?" he asked.

"I was planning on overcharging the bomb and destroying it from the inside, but if I do that now the mayor would be electrocuted," he said.

"I'll be what!" yelled the man tied to the bomb, Kid Flash and Aqualad mainly ignored him and continued the conversation.

"You know who could help us with the heat problem?" said Kid Flash and after receiving a confusing look from Aqualad he continued, "Nightshade, she could have use her powers to maintain the temperature in the bomb while you disable it," he finished.

"Well, she is not here, so I'll have to figure something else out," he said, both boys looked at the bomb and that's when they found a small hole in in the bomb, Aqualad directed his electricity inside it and slowly started charging the bomb until the timer started failing and it burned down from the inside. They separated the mayor from the bomb and moved on to the last bomb in the south.

As Robin sat there he received calls from the team members, Superboy, Zatanna, Rocket, Kid Flash, Aqualad and Miss Martian all had reported in to say their bombs had been defused, all of them but Artemis who was struggling to defuse the bomb since it was on a moving train and it was tied to the speed of the train so the passengers couldn't get off since the driver couldn't slow down or stop the train. She had managed to get on by using her arrows, but once inside it was impossible to leave. She went to the bomb and looked at it, it was a standard bomb with the different colored cables and the timer that told her she had less than five minutes left. She took a glimpse at the scared crowd in the back of the train and then at the driver sweating and anxious, and then she grabbed an arrow from her quiver. If Kid Flash had gotten to this bomb, he could have just grabbed it and took it somewhere without people, she thought getting ready to shoot the arrow.

"Oh, screw this," she said and from a relatively safe distance she shot the arrow that exploded when in contact with the bomb resulting in a destroyed shell. The train finally came to a stop in the next station and it was evacuated successfully. They thanked Artemis and as she walked out of the train Robin's voice came in through the comm.

" _ **Artemis, he's close to you I'm on my way there, so meet you at the apartment building near the station,"**_ he said and Artemis took off. By the time she got there, Kid Flash, Aqualad and Rocket where already there, they stood outside for a while until the others arrived and then waited for Robin but it wasn't until they heard a loud thud coming from inside that they realized he was already there. Rushing up the stairs they saw Clock King storming out of the room and going to the roof and just behind him was Robin. They all followed and once on the roof they saw the rest of the paper clippings, all about them including some that mentioned Nightshade.

"You know, when they said you would be easy, they were underestimating you," said Clock King looking at them and raising his hands in the air, giving up, "you still managed to take care of the bombs, even the one that was meant for your missing teammate," Kid Flash and Aqualad looked at each other. "Too bad, I wanted to test you all," he said. Clock King opened his coat to reveal a final bomb tied to his chest, with his finger already on the trigger, and without saying anything else, he quickly pressed the button giving the team just enough time to run for cover. Robin looked up, the blast had launched him further into the building, but he got up to check on the others that were outside. His ears were ringing and his head hurt even more with every step he took. Once outside, he confirmed that Clock King had successfully killed himself in the blast, and injured the team in the process. Rocket laid a hand on him, she was trying to tell him something, but the ringing in his ears blocked all the other noises.

Miss Martian was just getting up from the ground, she felt groggy, but still tried to make her way to Artemis when she saw her on the ground. She was unconscious with an open wound in her forehead, so Miss Martian carefully levitated her and took her safely out of the building while Rocket did the same thing with Robin and Zatanna. Superboy and Aqualad met them on the ground, next to the burning building. Kid Flash was about to make his way down, when he saw a partially burned clipping of Nightshade, he grabbed it after a while of staring at it and said in a soft voice:

"Souvenir," and ran out to meet the others. To them the mission felt like a failure, but the League apparently thought that there was no way of knowing that Clock King would blow himself up in an attempt to take them with him. This mission strained the relationship the team had with the League, but they just couldn't get something out of their minds, the bombs were specially designed for each one of them, including Nightshade.


	21. Return of Amazo

Mount Justice- October 31- 5:36 P.M-

Batgirl walked into the cave, she had been invited to the team's costume party so she decided to go as a red headed Wonder Woman. When she arrived though, she saw that everyone was wearing their usual suits and had a serious look on their faces.

"Well this is just embarrassing," she said walking up to them after spotting Batman's face in a screen.

"There was a change of plans," explained Zatanna before casting a spell that gave Batgirl her usual uniform.

"You will be escorting Doctor Will Magnus to a S.T.A.R Labs facility where he will pick up his research and then bring him to the Hall of Justice," he said just as the man walked up to them. He was wearing a white lab coat over a white shirt and a blue tie with khaki pants. His dark brown hair was neatly combed to one side and not a single hair could be seen out of place. "It has come to our attention that Doctor Magnus is being targeted by The Light, after working with Doctor Lawrence in a S.T.A.R Labs project. Zatanna, Aqualad and Rocket, you will be escorting him to S.T.A.R Labs, take Batgirl with you."

After giving out the order, Batman's face disappeared from the screen leaving the four teens alone with Doctor Magnus. "Where are the others?" asked Batgirl looking around the room.

"They were called for another mission, all of them but Robin, we haven't seen him today," answered Rocket.

"He's probably blowing off some steam somewhere, he and Batman had a fight," answered Batgirl. "It got ugly."

"Umm, hello. I'm Will Magnus," the doctor said, feeling the need to introduce himself to the team. They gave him a warm smile and took him to the hangar where they found their bikes ready. Without asking anything else, the team took off with Dr. Magnus. He rode in the back of Aqualad's bike, keeping his hands on the back of the bike. "Have you done this before?" he asked over the loud noise of the bike.

"Once, but we were escorting a machine, not a scientist," he answered.

"And how did that turn out?" the doctor asked, but he didn't receive and answer.

The ride to S.T.A.R. Labs went on without any major problems for the team. When they got there, Rocket and Zatanna stayed outside to keep watch while Batgirl and Aqualad accompanied the Doctor inside the facility. Neither one of them muttered a single word as they were too busy checking their surroundings to make small talk, thus the elevator ride was painfully awkward for Magnus which is why as soon as the doors opened, he darted out of the elevator and into his office.

While Doctor Magnus picked up his things, Aqualad and Batgirl examined the room to make sure they were alone. They were looking around the front of the room when they heard a loud bang coming from the back; Batgirl ran up to the Doctor while Aqualad looked for the source of the noise, he stopped right in front of a glass cell in the back of the room and looked right at Amazo.

"What is Amazo doing here?" he asked after Batgirl and Doctor Magnus joined him.

"The League sent it here to study, but up until now it had been inactive. I couldn't even get it to move," he said looking around the android. "I wonder what happened?" he asked.

"Doctor Magnus, with all due respect, I think it is time for us to leave," said Aqualad placing his hand on Magnus' shoulder and guiding him away from the glass cell. They hadn't even taken two steps away from the cell when they heard the familiar robot voice.

"Access Superman," said Amazo before shattering the glass with a single punch. "Access Flash," he said again and ran up to Aqualad and took Doctor Magnus from his hands. He didn't get far though since he ran directly into the smoke bombs laid out by Batgirl allowing her to take Magnus away from him. As soon as she had her hand on Magnus' arm, she used the other to throw some batarangs at Amazo.

"Access Martian Manhunter," he said right before the batarangs could hit him. Amazo then reached out to grab her, and threw her against the wall, forcing her to let go of Doctor Magnus. Almost immediately after that, energy blasts hit Amazo, followed by a spell that glued him in place. "Access Black Canary," he said right before releasing a painful canary cry that forced them all back. Rocket blasted him a few more times before her accessed Martian Manhunter again and her blasts started going right through.

"Why can't this thing just shut down already?" she asked in frustration.

"Access Nightshade," said Amazo.

"Please tell me I heard that wrong," said Batgirl right before Amazo surrounded the team with a fire barrier. The first one to fall to the ground was Aqualad before Zatanna cast a spell and put the fire out. Doctor Magnus stared at Amazo, he couldn't believe what he was seeing, all that power in a single android; he was distracted by a sequence of fireballs aimed at them. The team was feeling overwhelmed by the fire, with Aqualad feeling weaker from the heat and the others actively dodging or blocking the hits, there was not much time to check on Magnus.

"Access Flash," said Amazo and ran up to Magnus, took him and then ran out the door before the team had time to do anything else. Angered, Aqualad punched the wall next to him leaving a large hole in the concrete.

"Now what?" asked Batgirl looking in the direction Amazo had left.

"Now we tell the Justice League Amazo got away," he answered, obviously not happy about it.

Watchtower- 7:43 P.M-

"What happened?" asked Batman when he saw the team walk in without Doctor Magnus.

"Amazo took him," Aqualad explained, "he was suddenly activated and broke out of his cell. We tried to stop him, but he beat us," he continued, not breaking eye contact with Batman. The man didn't say anything, he just stared down at him, and somehow that was even worse than having him yell at them. In that moment, Black Canary and Huntress walked into the room with Lance and Skye right behind them.

"Did you say Amazo?" asked Huntress, "Nightshade asked me to help her escort the other parts of Amazo to S.T.A.R. Labs. He got activitaded for a while, but then we shot him down. Something happened?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest. Well, that explained how Amazo was able to access Nightshade's powers.

"He activated and took Doctor Magnus away with him," Batgirl explained.

"Wait, you failed with that?" asked Lance walking up to them with Skye. His smirk caught them a bit of guard which is why his question was met with glares.

"What he wanted to say was that we can help you get Doctor Magnus back," said Skye, pushing her brother out of the way.

"Why would you do that?" asked Rocket. After everything that had happened between them, it was only natural for her to be skeptical about their offer.

"Well for starters, escorting Dr. Magnus was originally Nightshade's mission. We have everything prepared for that mission, it would be a waste not to use that equipment, we even had something for the off chance they managed to take Magnus," said Lance, "well at least it was an off chance with Nightshade in charge," he finished. Huntress and Black Canary looked at each other before walking away from them, not wanting to know whether they would take them up on the offer. As soon as they left, Aqualad turned around to look at Lance in the eyes and then extended his hand.

"What do we do then?" he asked. The smirk returned to Lance's face as he shook Aqualad's hand.

"We're going to New York," he answered.

New York City- 9:00 P.M-

The siblings led the team to their apartment in New York City, though Rocket and Aqualad had already been inside before, this was the first time Batgirl and Zatanna had ever set foot in the place. They followed the siblings past the messy kitchen and the closed rooms to the one at the end of the hall. Lance walked in, turned on the light and placed his hand over a pad in the empty desk. As soon as the pad read his palm, monitors and shelves filled with weapons and other equipment started popping out into the room.

The team looked around in awe as the room put itself together; Lance ignored them and took a seat in front of the screens, his fingers quickly dancing over the keyboard until the footage from S.T.A.R. Labs was brought to the bigger screen. The footage played the team's fight with Amazo and how he took Dr. Magnus away, but just from that they wouldn't be able to figure out where he took him.

"Well this is not good," said Lance trying to find him in any other camera, but failing with all of them. "Do any of you know where he could have taken Dr. Magnus?" he asked looking back at them.

"I do," said Batgirl walking up to the computer and plugging in a USB. "I placed a tracker on Dr. Magnus and Amazo when one of my batarangs passed him by, it couldn't have fallen off because it stayed inside of him when he returned to his usual state. I checked," she answered pulling out s map of Metropolis that then closed in to a Lexcorp facility. Lance stared at Batgirl, honestly, he was impressed, he didn't think she was all that, but it seemed he was wrong.

"Lexcorp…" said Skye, "This is going to be harder that I thought," the girl grabbed a box she had put together with supplies, inside there were guns, bullets, knives and other gadgets at the bottom. Skye took out the weapons, "you're not going to need this, you don't use these things," she muttered as she kept pulling things out. Lance reached out into the box and pulled out small pellets.

"These are timed bombs, you press the trigger when you want them to explode, useful for when Amazo uses density shift," he said handing them to Batgirl, "this is just a prototype, so they should be last resource; the trigger only works at a close distance. It was alright for Nightshade because she's immune to heat or fire, but you're not," he explained. Rocket picked up one of the guns, it had a nice patter on the side and an N engraved at the bottom, she then noticed something that looked like a taser.

"What is this?" she asked.

"We put that together after Nightshade fought Amazo for the first time, it detects a weak spot and directs electricity to it which will cause a—"

"Short-circuit," Batgirl finished.

"Yeah…that," said Lance looking at her. "Anyway, since we have Aqualad, we don't really need that anymore."

"You want me to electrocute him?" he asked. "what if he accesses some power that makes him immune to electricity, like Black Lightning's powers or yours?" he asked looking at Skye.

"There's more to the plan," said Skye taking out a picture of Professor Ivo. "Amazo can only follow the orders of his master, so by silencing Ivo, Amazo will stop working. We know you won't be able to kill Ivy, so just distract Amazo by attacking Ivo and he should get his orders confused," she explained.

"Easier said than done. What if he's not there?" asked Zatanna, "we didn't see him last time."

"Just because you didn't see him, doesn't mean he wasn't there," said Lance showing them Professor Ivo talking to Amazo through a communicator in another room of S.T.A.R. Labs. Somehow, they had completely missed his presence in the building, even after checking everything. "My guess is that Professor Ivo needs to be close to Amazo for him to work, so if you beat the robot by going after his master," he explained.

"Okay, but how do you suggest we get to Amazo in the heavily guarded Lexcorp building?" asked Rocket pointing at the red dot shining on the screen.

"Leave that to me," said Lance typing something in the computer that granted him access to the cameras of the building and the blueprints of the place, "after all I'm something of an expert on all things Luthor," he said.

Metropolis, Lexcorp Facilities- 10:32 P.M-

Aqualad, Batgirl, Zatanna and Rocket arrived at the adjacent building to Lexcorp. Lance had given them an earpiece to communicate with them, so once Aqualad reported back to him, Lance told them which floor had less security. The team came inside through one of the windows on the sixth floor of the building, but had to hide immediately after a guard was passing by. They sneaked around the guy and knocked him out so they could walk around without having to worry about being spotted. Like that, they made their way to the third floor where they ran into a large group of guards.

" _ **I have good news and bad news, which one do you want first?"**_ asked Lance while the team hid in an empty room.

" _ **Were you like this with Nightshade?"**_ asked Rocket a little tired of the constant comments.

" _ **Oh no, it was worse,"**_ he answered. _**"She actually indulged me,"**_

" _ **What's the good news?"**_ asked Batgirl.

" _ **There's a back door that can give you a guard-free path to Dr. Magnus,"**_ he answered.

" _ **But we have to get through those guards?"**_ she asked already knowing the answer.

" _ **Oh yeah,"**_ he told them. _**"Careful, they're armed."**_

Batgirl pulled out a couple of smoke pellets and threw them into the room. The smoke blinded the guards long enough for them to take them out. One of them, started shooting around the room; Rocket was forced to pull out a force field around them so the bullets would just bounce right off. She left Aqualad out of the force field, which allowed him to sneak around the guard and hit him in the back of the head. The team then moved to the back of the room and rushed down the flight of stairs. Once in front of the right door, they stepped inside, and as soon as they did, they heard the sound of an alarm going off.

"What's going on?" Asked Zatanna.

" _ **Relax, that was me,"**_ said Lance, _**"I activated an intruder alert on the twelve floor, this will give you some time to get Dr. Magnus out, it won't be much, but I'm sure you can manage,"**_ he told them. The group ran deeper into the room where they found Dr. Magnus along with Dr. Lawrence in a lab separated by a thick glass. As soon as they spotted the team, the scientists ran up to the glass.

"Oh, thank god you're here!" said Magnus, "they are forcing us to rebuild our S.T.A.R. Labs satellite," he explained.

"Don't worry, we'll get you out of here," answered Zatanna before casting a spell to open the door to the lab.

" _ **Get out of there, Amazo is on his way!"**_ said Lance staring at the cameras, watching Amazo clear his way to the lab, _**"and Ivo is with him,"**_ he told them.

" _ **Stall him!"**_ Aqualad said trying to figure out a way to get out of the room, but the only way was the door they had come through.

" _ **What the bloody hell do you think I've been doing, but that thing just breaks through every single barrier I place,"**_ he said, and as soon as he finished talking, Amazo broke the door to the lab. Rocket shoved both scientists back into the lab and turned around in time to dodge the heat vision laser.

"I knew you'd eventually get here," said Ivo, "though I have to be honest with you, I expecting to see Nightshade. After all, she had stopped us from taking two of the other S.T.A.R. Labs scientists," he said before ordering Amazo to attack the team.

" _ **What is he talking about?"**_ asked Aqualad.

" _ **Oh, did I forget to mention that?**_ He said. The team didn't have time to answer, because they had to dodge the lab equipment that Amazo was throwing at them.

"Access Black Canary," he said and released an ear-piercing scream, Aqualad moved to try and touch Amazo and shock him, but he released another scream that pushed him back. After realizing they wouldn't be able to get close to him, the team shifted their attention to Ivo. Rocket was the first one to launch a wave of energy blasts at Ivo, but Amazo accessed Flash and took the blasts for him causing a bit of damage to the android. Following the pattern, Aqualad launched an attack at Professor Ivo that had to be covered by Amazo, without giving him time to use any other power. Zatanna followed with a wind spell that pushed Professor Ivo back and when Amazo when to follow him, Batgirl threw a wave of explosive batarangs at him and then finished him off with one of the explosive bombs Lance had given him, but she only pressed the trigger after Rocket surrounded her with a force field that kept the blast away from her.

" _ **Well, that's one way to do it,"**_ said Lance.

Watchtower- November 1st -2:25 A.M-

The team, plus the two scientists and the sibling, walked into the Watchtower much to Batman's surprise. He approached them after Flash and Martian Manhunter took the scientists out of the room and quietly stared at them. "Good job," he simply said. The team proudly looked at each other before turning around to look at the siblings.

"Thank you for the assistance," Aqualad was the first one to speak. He extended his hand, but Lance didn't take it, he just stared at it for a few seconds until Aqualad put it down.

"Yeah, so much for the untrustworthy criminals. Don't get confused, we only helped because we had the equipment ready; we're not interested in being your friends, or even your allies," he finished and he and Skye turned to leave. The girl gave them one last saddened look before following her brother.


	22. Anarky

Gotham City- November 15- 6:43 P.M-

Artemis opened the door of her apartment to find her mother in the living room watching the news. "Hi mom, have you eaten yet?" she sked walking up to the kitchen and opening the fridge.

"Of course I have, what time do you think it is?" she asked raising an eyebrow while Artemis moved around some things in the fridge, "anyway, how was school?" she asked turning her head towards the television.

"It was alright, you know full of obnoxious kids," she said with her head still buried in the fridge, the television in the background had a reported talking about the latest events.

"Last month's events have caused an uproar in the people of the cities that were targeted by the villain that calls himself the Clock King. Citizens are left outraged by the lack of interest and action from the government. On the plus side, the Justice League took action and managed to save Star City before it was blown up by this maniac, they truly are our heroes." Yeah, the Justice League saved us all, she thought while she closed the door of the fridge. Suddenly there was a loud noise out on the street that made Artemis rush towards the window only to see that someone had thrown a molotov at a police car causing it to explode. She turned her head to the other side and saw a huge crowd of hooded people running through the streets.

"What happened?" asked her mother moving her wheelchair towards the window, "Oh, don't you have anywhere you would like to be?" she asked looking at her daughter, she nodded and rushed out of the apartment. Her mother turned her head to the T.V to hear the reporter.

"This is just in, a violent riot group is roaming the streets of every major city in the country; people are advised to stay in their homes until the authorities handle the rioters," she said and then another explosion was heard in the background.

On the other side of Gotham, Batman and Robin landed on top of the police department building after seeing the sign in the sky. They walked up to the police commissioner, hearing the screaming and ongoing explosions down on the street.

"Batman, Robin," he greeted them, "I assume you know what is going on down there," he said.

"We have an idea," answered Robin.

"Right, what I wanted you to know was that I received a strange call this afternoon, it was a guy talking about redemption, and corporate America. Actually he wanted me to quit the police force, at first I thought he was just another crazy asshole calling, but then this happens," he complained, Batman just looked at him while Gordon kept talking and finally another cop came in through the door yelling that the Courthouse was under attack. Gordon turned around to tell them one more thing but Batman and Robin were no longer there, "Of course," he said to himself and rushed out of the roof.

Batman and Robin watched Gordon storm off from the nearest building. "Robin, call in the team, tell them to meet you at the Courthouse, I'll try to stop the rioters on the street," he said walking away.

"I heard that you are still avoiding Wonder Woman," said Robin, Batman turned around, "she's getting mad at you, if I were you I would talk, I wouldn't want an amazon getting angry at me," he said and jumped down from the building _ **. "Robin to the team, meet me in Gotham, there's trouble in the Courthouse and Batman wants us there,"**_ he said using his grappling hook to jump from roof to roof.

" _ **Can't, I'm busy in Central City,"**_ said Kid Flash. The other's answers were the same, except for Artemis who told him she was on her way. Robin spotted a group of hooded people running in his direction and the next thing that happened was that his rope was cut and he fell on top of one of the roofs. He got up quickly and looked around to see masked men forming a circle around him, all of them holding different weapons like knives, broken bottles and bats.

"Look at this, we caught ourselves a little bird," said one of them walking up to Robin, when he saw this Robin kicked him in the chin forcing him to back away. As soon as he did that the other masked men charged at him, he took them on trying to focus on knocking one down before going off to the other which proved quite difficult since they took swings at him with their knives and broken bottles, some of them managed to cut him a little. He turned around and punched one of them forcing him to the ground, then another one who was coming at him from behind with a bat, he kicked and punched all of them out of his way and then used another hook to get over to the courthouse.

When Robin got to the courthouse, he landed in front of a group of hooded men and women building more molotovs to throw at the police. They turned their heads to look at him, he was injured all over and his suit was ripped, but that didn't stop them. It wasn't long until an arrow landed at their feet and exploded in a smoke curtain bringing down most of the criminals. Following the arrow, came another one that froze their lower halves keeping them in place.

"Someone knows how to make an entrance," said Robin looking over at Artemis. They barged into the building, it was filled with hooded people and anarchy symbols everywhere, when they saw them, the criminals ran up to them and the fight broke out.

Robin fought a small group, he used his birdarangs, he dropped a few smoke bombs on them allowing him to move without being seen and in a matter of minute he took them down. When he raised his head to look around and saw that Artemis had just finished with the rest and all that was left were the unconscious bodies of the thugs. Suddenly a voice came in that resounded through the whole building, a projection appeared on one of the walls, it was a man in red, and he had his hood up so they couldn't see his face.

"It was about time for you to get here," he said, "now, you may not know me, but I do know you so for the sake of introductions; I'm Anarky. I have seen and heard so much about you, the way you handled Clock King was admirable. Yet you let the Justice League take the credit, join me and you can have what's yours, power, pride, recognition. A way out of the stablished order," he said. After a while more thugs came in and Robin found the right name for them, Anarchists.

"If you think we will join you, then you are out of your mind," said Artemis. "We might not be in the best terms with the Justice League right now, but none of us would go behind their backs," she said grabbing one of her arrows.

A smile formed in Anarky's lips, "Commitment, loyalty, just as they said. Now what you said is not really true, there was one that would have actually considered my offer, too bad Nightshade's not here," he said and then shrugged his shoulders, "just saying her name gives me the chills, and here I was looking forward to meeting her," he said, they just looked at each other and then the anarchists attacked them. By the time they were done, Anarky was no longer there.

The anarchist retrieved from the streets in the morning, and Robin told everything to Batman, everything except the part of Anarky's apparent obsession with Nightshade, or the fact that he had actually considered his offer for a second.

New York- November 17- 5:32 P.M-

Richard Grayson arrived at the familiar apartment in Manhattan, he made his way to the last door in the hall and knocked softly. After no one answered, he knocked again, louder this time. Richard heard light footsteps approaching the door, and then it swung open to reveal Skye looking up at him. The girl let out a disappointed sigh and allowed him inside, she poured him a glass of water and placed it in front of him.

"Thanks," he said. There was a long pause until he spoke again. "How are you doing?" he asked.

"Well, it's hard. I really miss Jade, but we're fine," she said sitting down on the chair in front of him. "What about you?" she asked. Dick was taken aback by the question, he was fine, it wasn't like losing Jade had affected him at all…then he remembered the night she had gone missing, how he had franticly looked for her and how relieved he was when he saw that she was alright.

"I'm fine, why would I—," he started, but Skye's smile cut him off.

"Then why are you here?" she asked with a small smile on her face.

"I had something to ask you," he said. No that was not it…he asked himself that question again while the girl got up from the chair to take the glass of water to the kitchen. In that moment, the front door opened and Lance walked into the apartment. The moment his eyes laid on Dick, he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him up from the ground.

"What do you want?" asked Lance looking directly at him. Lance let him go after Skye yelled at him

"I came to check up on you, but I also thought you might know something about Anarky, he seems to be obsessed with Nightshade, but forget it," he said. Lance let go of him and just as he grabbed the door knob he felt an electric current run through his body. Dick turned around, shaking his hand up and down while Skye had a scary smirk on her face.

"We do know about him, so why don't you come back and sit down," she told him, Dick looked at Lance, but he was just as terrified at his sister as he was, so he decided it was better to listen to her.

"Does this happen a lot?" he asked quietly as he and Lance made their way to the couch.

"You have no idea," he said sitting down next to him. Skye came back a few minutes later, her hands full of folders and papers, the girl almost lost her footing, but managed to keep the papers in place before finally placing them on top of the coffee table.

"This is everything we have on Anarky and his followers. He started his 'cult' a few years ago, it was small at first, but then it started growing until this point. He used to be a simple annoyance that we never payed attention to, but as he grew more influential, we started paying more attention to him," Skye explained. "Though Jade never met him, he still created raids and then left small messages taunting her. Of course, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was getting under her skin, so she never confronted him," she told him. Dick went through the files that contained very detailed information on Anarky and his followers. It was then that they heard a loud explosion coming from the street; the three of them looked out the window to see the rioters running through the streets, this time they were armed with guns and Molotovs that they threw to create the explosions. They all seemed to be heading towards Times Square, so Dick and the siblings suit up and followed them from the skies, staying out of their sight.

Once they got there, Red Shot awkwardly placed Robin on top of another building and they watched as the screens went black and then showed Anarky's hooded face. He spoke as his followers cheered and stood in front of the screen listening intendedly. Once Anarky had finished his speech, the crowd erupted in violence.

"Can you trace the signal?" asked Red Shot, getting ready to jump down into the crowd. Robin nodded and with that, the siblings tried to control Anarky's followers while Robin traced his signal. When he finally found it, he realized it came from a building just three blocks away from him. Robin got up from the ground and then jumped from roof to roof until he reached the roof of the building Anarky was supposed to be in. He sneaked in through the window on the last floor and made his way down the empty building. As he reached the third floor, he heard someone mumbling something he couldn't make out until he got closer to the door.

"She has to come now that her city is under attack!" Anarky said. He kept mumbling to himself until Robin came through the door. "Nightshade?" He asked, excitement filled his voice.

"Sorry to disappoint you," said Robin.

"Ugh, I had a feeling you would be the one to find me," said Anarky taking out a escrima stick, Robin moved out of the way as Anarky charged towards him and then kicked him in the chest pushing him against the wall. Anarky charged at him again and this time Robin grabbed the stick and used it to pin Anarky to the wall.

"What's your deal?" He asked, "Who told you about us?" he asked adding pressure to the stick.

"Just someone that wants to end the Justice League and its allies, that means you and of course Nightshade," he said as his hood slipped. "Oh, look at that, there come the goose bumps," Robin saw the face of a teenager, a bit older than him, but still he was just a kid.

"Don't you ever mention her again," he said and used the stick to electrocute him into unconsciousness. He dragged Anarky's unconscious body to the camera and turned it on. Once again, Times Square filled with his face, only that this time Robin was the one that did the talking while he held up his body so that his followers could see. When they realized their leader had fallen, they cleared the streets as fast as they had infested them. Red Shot and Livewire arrived at the building Robin was in and watched him drag Anarky out of the building and hand him over to the cops.

"Don't you think you over did it?" asked Livewire.

"No," he simply said and left them standing outside the building. He was angry, the Light was once again after them and this time they seemed to be using other villains to get to them…and Nightshade.


	23. Welcome to the End Pt I

London, United Kingdom- March 19/2012- 4:30 A.M-

A police officer was patrolling the empty streets of Coast City when he heard the sound of a window breaking right around the corner. He rushed towards the noise only to see a woman crouching on the ground next to a broken window of the apartment building. The woman was shaking uncontrollably and blood was pouring out of her hand which she was holding onto really tightly. "Ma'am, are you alright?" asked the officer as he leaned down to touch the woman's shoulder, but right before he could touch her, she turned around and with an ear-piercing scream she ran away from him, leaving him alone with a horrible creature that jumped out of the window and smashed his head against the wall.

While that happened to him, the chaos had just started in the rest of the city, more of those things had started to appear in the streets and were attacking more unsuspecting citizens. They were barging into their houses, breaking their windows or breaking down their doors. The people that made it into the street had no better luck as they stumbled into the human-like creatures that looked like they were made of a greenish clay that dripped onto the ground.

Belle Reve, Louisiana- 5:00 A.M-

Nightshade sat up on her bed after hearing a loud noise coming from the other side of the hall. She, just like the other inmates, walked up to the door and tried to see what was going on, but they couldn't see anything. It wasn't until they saw a guard run through the halls, that they could see what was following him. It was something that looked like it might have been human at some point, but had green skin and it looked like it was dripping onto the floor leaving a trail behind. The guard stumbled to the ground and they had to see how the creature dripped all over the guard's mouth muffling his screams and suffocating him in the process. The creature then moved from the guard and towards first cell of the hall, and that was when they heard more screaming.

Nightshade moved away from the door and turned back to her bed, the girl crouched on the ground and started looking for the signal disruptor she had taped to the bottom of her bed. After a while of shuffling around she found it and used it to unlock both the collar around her neck and the door of her cell. She heard another scream right as she was stepping out, the creature was just four cells away from her, it was inside so she figured she could just make a run for it, and that was when she saw Poison Ivy, Copy Cat and Cheetah leaning against their doors. Nightshade looked at them before she ran past their cells and turned the corner to see more creatures coming her way.

"Shit," she said and turned back the way she came from to unlock their cells, but the creature had already stepped out into the hall. The moment it spotted Nightshade, it stuck his gooey hands to the walls, blocking her path. The creature then stretched his limbs in her direction trying to hit her, but the girl kept dodging him and instead its limbs hit the walls breaking the concrete with every blow. Finally, Nightshade ducked and slid past the creature giving her enough time to open their cells. The moment Nightshade opened the doors, the three of them moved her out of the way and tried to make it past the creature, but failed since it kept pushing them back. Nightshade hit her face with her palm and watched them come back to her.

"What the hell is that thing?" asked Copy Cat shielding herself behind Nightshade.

"I don't know, but there's more than one of those things," said the girl turning around to talk to them. The creature took the chance and stretched his limb to hit Nightshade, but the girl grabbed it and lit her hand on fire. The creature tried to pull back, but due to the fire, his arm hardened and it was unable move. Soon the fire extended to the rest of his body and the creature was left completely stiff. Copy Cat walked up to it and pushed it only to have it fall to the ground and shatter. The other three made their way towards what was left of the creature, a hollow mold in the shape of a human.

"So, these creatures are just empty shells?" asked Poison Ivy leaning down to touch the mold. It was as if someone had made a whole army of clay soldiers. A high-pitched scream got everyone's attention, forcing Poison Ivy to her feet.

"We have to get everyone out of here," said Nightshade looking in the direction the scream had come from. After hearing that, the three women let out a laugh and started walking away from Nightshade. "What are you doing?" she asked watching them leave.

"Look kid, I don't know who you think we are, but this is not out problem," said Poison Ivy, getting her punch blocked by Nightshade.

"I ran out of lunch trays," she told her, looking up with a smirk on her face and pushing her hand away. "It is your problem if you want to get out alive. Believe me I don't love it either, but I can't get out of here alone and neither can you," she told them. Right then they heard more screaming coming from the halls, so the three women turned around to look at Nightshade.

"So, all we have to do is unlock the cells, right?" asked Copy Cat pointing at the signal disruptor Nightshade held in her hand.

"Yeah, but we'll never finish if we have to do it one by one, we need to take it to the control room. Which is in the third floor," said Nightshade; the girls then heard more creatures making their way towards them. They got in fighting position as the first creature popped its head around the corner. Surprisingly Cheetah stepped forward and clawed him on the side while Copy Cat turned into Superboy and punched the creature in the face breaking through his shell.

"So what's the plan?" Asked Cheetah massaging her wrists while kicking another creature across the face.

"Let's open these cells before we get overwhelmed," answered Poison Ivy as some vines popped out of the ground.

"Don't say that word ever again," said Nightshade taking out a knife she was keeping in her cell. They charged through the creatures, cutting them, hitting them or clawing their way towards the other side of the hall. Once on the other side, they followed Nightshade; so far, the only thing they were seeing were the creatures since it looked like the guards had fled. They managed to fight their way into the second floor where Nightshade spotted a door that was slightly open. Inside they found a storage room, they went in and closed the door behind them when they saw more creatures coming their way.

"What now?" Asked Cheetah. That was when they heard loud banging coming from the other side of the wall. The men's side was still locked up and they didn't seem to be doing so well.

"Are we just going to leave them like that?" asked Copy Cat. The others looked at each other.

"Ugh fine," said Nightshade sighing heavily, "There should be an office in this floor that can open all the cells in the men's wing, after you're done with that, go to the third floor and open the ones on this side," she said throwing Copy Cat the signal disruptor. Nightshade then opened the door knocking out one of the creatures and the three of them followed her. Copy Cat ran away while the other three stayed behind taking down the remaining monsters.

"That means we find the exit and open the door so we can get the fuck out of this place," said Cheetah walking away from them.

"No, that means we get rid of this things until Copy Cat can open the doors," said Poison Ivy, "otherwise we won't be able to get those doors open," she explained. The three of them agreed and split up, each one of them taking a different floor. Poison Ivy stayed on the second floor, Cheetah moved to the first and Nightshade ran up to the third floor.

While on their way to the stairs, they ran into more of those creatures, one of them attacked Poison Ivy, but before it could reach her, a plant stabbed it through the chest. On the other side, Cheetah put her fist through the creature's chest with her arm popping out at the back.

Nightshade used her powers to burn them as they charged at her, and then made her way to the third floor. She used fire to stiffen their bodies and walked past them breaking them in the process. She made her way towards the back, where she saw a huge hole in the wall, the temptation of jumping out and leaving was great until she saw how it looked like outside and how high the third floor of the prison actually was. In the distance, she could see a burning city and the screams reached the island; just as she leaned over, she saw more creatures climbing the wall to get inside the prison, so she backed away and grabbed a pipe that was leaning against the wall.

Copy Cat barely made it into the room, but she lost the signal disruptor in the fight after one of the creatures grabbed her hand and tried to pull her towards its gooey body. She had kicked the creature in the chest and copied its powers to pit it to the wall and leave it there, unfortunately, it's sticky hands had taken the signal disruptor with them. Copy Cat looked around the room frantically, trying to find something she could use to disable the security system, then her eyes laid on a lamp, so she broke it over the dashboard unlocking all the cells and disabling the collars on the men's side. She tried to get out, but the door was being blocked by the monsters.

" _ **A little help would be nice,"**_ the others heard Copy Cat talking through the sound system of the prison.

Poison Ivy heard the message and pushed past the crowd of monsters. She finally made it to the door after stabbing some monsters with a vine, once the door was clear, Copy Cat ran past Poison Ivy and up to the third floor. There, she met Nightshade who guided her through the crowd and into the security room.

A smile escaped Nightshade's mouth when she heard loud bangs coming from the cells; she leaned over to look into the cafeteria that was flooded by criminals taking down the creatures in an attempt to escape the prison that a few seconds ago was going to be the last thing they'll ever see. A new wave of creatures made its way to the third floor and Nightshade tightened her grip on the pipe.

Watchtower- 7:43 A.M-

"This is how Gotham City, Metropolis, Star City, Bludhaven and many other major cities around the world look like right now," Said Superman as he floated next to Batman, on the screen the cities were displayed, completely trashed, buildings and houses on fire and those creatures roaming around the streets. The whole team was gathered around the screen, some looked disgusted, others scared and others just surprised.

"We looked into this matter, but we haven't been able to determine the cause of the spread," said Batman, "Right now we are short on resources, as you know, this thing has spread all over the world and there's not nearly enough of us to cover every country—" he was cut off by the loud sound of alarms going off. They all looked at the screen which showed the breakout in both Belle Reve and Blackgate prison, the fact that this had happened meant that whatever those things were, they had managed to get inside the maximum-security facilities allowing the inmates to flee.

"Wasn't Nightshade in Belle Reve?" asked Aqualad looking at the many faces that the security camera managed to identify. Nightshade was nowhere to be found, so that meant she was probably still inside. Batman started to walk away with Robin closely behind him.

"Where are you going?" asked Wonder Woman.

"Belle Reve," he said before teleporting outside of the Watchtower. As Robin walked behind him, he wondered why Batman cared so much about Belle Reve, Nightshade had probably made it out among the sea of inmates, or at least that was what he hopped. To be completely honest Robin was also worried about her, but it was understandable for him to be worried, after all he had spent more time with her, yes just that. There was nothing more than that, he kept telling himself.

Belle Reve- 8:16 A.M-

Batman and Robin made their way through the prison. Belle Reve was a mess; most of the cells had been opened, there were dead bodies everywhere along with the empty carcasses of those creatures. There were still some closed cells that contained either dead or scared prisoners. They walked past the cafeteria where he saw a huge pile of dead bodies in the middle, dry blood was covering the walls and the floor, but still they kept walking. Finally, they reached the last cell of the hall, the dead body of a guard was rotting in front of the cell, so Batman cautiously looked inside. The cell was empty and there was no sign of Nightshade.

As they moved away, they heard a loud shriek coming from the third floor, the dynamic duo traced the sound up to the offices to see Nightshade hitting one of the creatures with a pipe. The girl slowly turned around to face them revealing her goo-stained face just as Copy Cat popped her head out of Waller's office.

"Nightshade?" asked Robin after seeing the girl standing in the middle of the body pile. Her hair had gotten longer and it now reached her waist and the black color had started to fade showing her natural dark brown hair.

"I see you're still alive," said Batman. Nightshade looked at him. The girl still wore the orange suit; the only difference was that it was now ripped in various places.

"Disappointed?" she asked dropping one of the creatures to the ground. "I thought you would never stop by. What is going on?" she asked glancing at Robin.

"People all around the world are being attacked by those creatures, and some of them are even turning into lifeless monsters. Millions have died already, and it shows no sign of stopping." He said. So it is him, she thought looking at them until Poison Ivy and Cheetah showed up from behind her.

"The first and second floors are clear," said Cheetah as the two women made their way towards the girl. Just as they got closer, Copy Cat came out from Amanda's office and that was when they all saw Batman and Robin. "Look who decided to show up," said Cheetah crossing her arms over her chest.

"This floor is also clear. Are all the doors open?" asked Nightshade ignoring the dynamic duo. Copy Cat nodded, "and Blackgate?" she asked.

"They are out," answered Batman joining the conversation. So it had been her idea to free the prisoners from Belle Reve and Blackgate.

"You're working with them?" aksed Robin. The four of them looked at each other before shrugging.

"We bonded," answered Nightshade.

"If the League had known that those creatures where here we would have come, but the guards never issued an alarm," he explained, after all even if they were criminals, leaving them locked up in here was inhuman.

"Of course they didn't, the guards ran away," said Copy Cat. "Either way, what would you have done, lock us up somewhere else?" she asked getting closer to Batman but Nightshade stopped her knowing there was no way Copy Cat could take on Batman and Robin.

"What about Arkham?" asked Poison Ivy wondering about the other place where she was usually locked up.

"Arkham can burn to the ground for all I care," answered Nightshade, "you can go now, try to stay away from those things," she said before walking away from the trio. Batman and Robin followed her through the hall and watched as the remaining prisoners shied away from her. The girl made her way towards an office in the back, she opened the door by swiping Waller's identification and walked into the small room where they saw her uniform hanging on the back with the rest of her things. Nightshade started undressing so both of them turned around until she was done. Taking a better look at Nightshade she had changed her uniform, this one was black with fine red accents that ran along the sides. She took her guns and put them on the side of her now red belt and tightened her red gloves around her wrists.

"New uniform?" asked Robin looking at the girl.

"The old one was involved in an accident," she said, "my team, where are they?" she asked.

"They are safe inside the Watchtower. Let's go to the cave, I need to retrieve some things and work on a way to stop this," he said walking in front of Nightshade towards the plane.

"If it is who I think it is, you will never find a way to stop it in a lab," she said. "It's magic, ancient magic. They are Felix Faust's soulless puppets," she said crossing her arms over her chest.

"So he's killing millions and taking their souls," said Batman, "he is preparing for a ritual. We need to stop him before he can complete it," he said typing in his computer before Dr. Fate's face popped up.

"We?" asked Nightshade leaning against the wall of the prison, "I thought The Dark Knight and The Boy Wonder didn't like the way I worked," she continued.

"We don't, but apparently you know Faust more than we do," said Robin.

"Ah, of course. I should have known it was him," said Dr. Fate, "come to the Watchtower, I'll prepare something so we can stop him," he said. The three of them started walking out of the prison, Nightshade always keeping her distance from the two of them. Robin stop walking until she was standing next to him.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"Oh everything's perfect, I spent 6 months in jail and almost got killed by a bunch of clay monsters, but I'm fine," she answered, sarcasm spewing out of every word.

"Not about that, about what happened…"

"It doesn't matter, it's already over," she answered.

"No, it isn't. You know it isn't," he told her.

"Look, I betrayed your trust and lied to everyone, you have every right to be angry, just don't ask me to apologize," she told him walking ahead.

"That's not it," he said catching up to her once again and grabbing her arm. Nightshade looked at him, she still hadn't put her mask on so he could see her dark brown eyes staring right into his with resentment. He let go of her and followed behind the rest of the way to the Batwing. After they got in, they flew away from the prison that was now empty. Nightshade tried not to look out the window, but the screaming caught her attention and she carefully looked down to see creatures roaming around the city.

"Cool, this looks like one of those Zombie movies," she said leaning over her seat only to receive a glare form Batman, "I mean, oh this is bad," she said after clearing her throat.


	24. Welcome to the End Pt II

Watchtower- 10:33 A.M-

Batman, Robin and Nightshade stepped into the Watchtower were the team and part of the Justice League was gathering. The moment they saw Nightshade, the whole room went quiet, it had been a while since they had last seen her; she had changed a lot, not only was her hair longer and brown, but her suit was now black and red giving her a much more threatening air.

Nightshade actually enjoyed the silence over the noise back down on earth. She looked at the screens that showed the League fighting against those clay monsters that spawned on every edge of the earth… and they were losing. The moment they saw her, Lance and Skye rushed to her side. "I'm so happy to see you," said Skye pulling her in for a hug.

"Same, just a little less enthusiastic," said Lance looking down at her. Nightshade smiled at the sight of them, but their reunion was short lived when she saw the way the rest of the League was looking at her.

"Faust is hiding in another dimension so that he could complete his spell without us interrupting," said Dr. Fate, "this dimension seems highly unstable though. We need someone to go inside and stop him," he explained the situation to the group.

"I will do it," said Wonder Woman, stepping up to the front.

"No, we need you here," answered Batman. "I can—," he started, but Nightshade cut him off.

"I'll go," she said. "I know Faust more than you do. Plus, I don't think I'll be missed all that much around here," Rocket lifted her face to look at Nightshade, it was the first time she had done it ever since she walked inside. The room fell silent after she spoke, but it didn't remain that way for long since Dr. Fate broke it.

"I must warn you, you might not make it back into this world," said Fate. The ominous message resonated through the room.

"Yeah, yeah I know," she answered, and in front of her, Dr. Fate and Zatanna opened a portal that led to the dimension Faust was hiding in. The girl walked past them, but before she could enter, Robin grabbed her arm.

You don't have to, we can find another way," he said holding onto her arm a bit more tightly.

"See you in a while Blunder Boy," she said before stepping into the portal. Robin hit the wall next to him, cracking the concrete. Lance watched the scene, but stayed quiet, didn't seem like the moment to pick a fight.

"Where's Batman?" asked Black Canary noticing his absence.

"He went in with Nightshade," answered Fate while he and Zatanna kept the portal open and stable.

"So? Now what?" asked Kid Flash.

"Now we make sure there's a world for them to save," said Wonder Woman leading the rest down to earth.

On the other side, Nightshade walked through a dark rocky path that led to a tower in the distance. "You couldn't just leave this to me, could you?" she asked spotting Batman in the corner, when he didn't answer she continued, "the fate of the world is too big a responsibility to leave it to someone like me, right?" she asked walking past him. The path that was ahead was made out of floating rocks and broken pieces of road, Nightshade let out a loud sigh and started to make her way through with Batman right next to her.

They ran for a while until they reached a broken road, the other side was too far a way to jump, and Batman's grappling hook didn't have anything to hold onto. He looked at Nightshade for a few seconds before speaking, "can't Nightfall create a portal to the other side?" he asked.

"She could, but there's no way I'm letting her take over, not after what happened," said Nightshade looking back at him. Batman looked back to the path in front, he thought about using his grappling hook, but he just had to find a place that would hold their weight. After finding a steady spot, he shot the grappling hook there and grabbed Nightshade before she had a chance to protest. He kept doing that until they reached the floating island right in front of the tower. "Just…just give me a second…I think I'm about to throw up."

Before they reached them, Batman stopped walking and grabbed Nightshade's arm and turned her around. The girl looked at the clay copies of Black Canary, Green Arrow and Aquaman standing in front of them. Nightshade lit her fist on fire and got ready for the fight, but Black Canary beat her to it, she released her canary cry, pushing them both back and allowing Aquaman and Green Arrow to attack while they were distracted.

"Such an annoying power," said Nightshade after getting up from being knocked down by Aquaman. She tried to dodge an oncoming hit from him, but failed at the last minute and ended up getting stabbed by the clay replica of Aquaman's trident. Blood came out of the wound as she pulled the trident out of her shoulder and waited for it to close up just in time to dodge another hit. She had thought that since this was a clay figure, she could just break him, but the thing was stronger than she thought. Nightshade lifted her hand and fire came out of the ground right underneath Aquaman, effectively hardening the clay and allowing her to break him. She did the same thing with Black Canary and then turned to look at Batman tying up Green Arrow's feet to keep him from getting up, so she burned him too. Batman returned the favor with a silent glare. "I told you I could do this alone," she said.

Cape Town, South Africa- 4:50 P.M-

Wonder Woman, Superboy and Red Shot landed in South Africa were a horde of clay creatures had appeared. The amazon led the charge through the large group of monsters with Superboy clearing out the left and Red Shot on the right. Wonder Woman used her sword and shield to brutally make her way through, the creatures barely had a chance to attack when they felt the cold metal of her sword slashing their carcass. Superboy, used his bare hands to smash the creatures as they came up to him, he would also grab them and fling them across to take down as many creatures as possible. Red Shot was forced to move out of the way when one of the creatures Superboy had thrown came his way; after avoiding the thing, he kept destroying them with energy blasts that covered a large area.

Cairo, Egypt- 4:56 P.M-

Superman, Livewire and Shazam busied themselves in Egypt with the clay figures that were attacking civilians. Superman flew through the crowd of monsters, leaving holes in their bodies and knocking them to the ground. He was mainly aided by Livewire's lightning that broke the figures the moment she struck them down with her powers. Though she was having a hard time really focusing her powers on just the creatures and not aiming it at the civilians that Shazam was getting out of the way while also taking care of the figures that approached them.

-Faust's Tower-

Batman and Nightshade walked up to the gate and pushed it open to reveal huge lines of bookshelves stacked up neatly against the walls of the tower and a huge staircase that led to a balcony that overlooked the room they were standing in. Faust leaned over the rail to look at the two of them, his gown reaching the floor and his white bony fingers griping the metal railing as hard as they could.

"I knew someone would eventually come, but I never would have guessed that someone would be you two," said Faust walking away from the railing, "unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to stop me now, my spell is almost ready," he told them before a birdarang hit Nightshade in the back of her shoulder, she groaned in pain and fell to the ground; Batman looked back at her just in time to see Nightshade pulling out the birdarang and the wound closing. He helped her up and turned in the direction the arrow had come from to see a clay figure of Robin standing there.

"Great, another one," she said before extending her hand to burn down the figure, but after a few seconds it became evident that this one couldn't be burned.

"Don't bother, I cast a fire proof spell on my new clay figures," Faust's voice echoed through the room.

"Seriously?!" asked Nightshade looking up at the balcony and after hearing a loud bang, they both turned around to see clay figures of Huntress, Red Shot and Livewire joining Robin. Both of them got in fighting position waiting for them to make a move when Robin ran towards Nightshade and threw her against the wall with a single kick. The teen got up rubbing the back of her head as she glanced up at Robin who was ready to strike again with Huntress standing beside him. Meanwhile, Batman had to deal with the siblings as they started attacking him, he threw batarangs at them, but using their powers they destroyed them. He used his grappling hook to get to Livewire and took her down to the floor using her as a shield for when Red Shot attacked him. Livewire released electricity out of her fingertips shocking Batman, once he was able to move he saw Red Shot preparing a new attack but before he could do anything a fireball knocked the teen over.

Batman looked at Nightshade, she was struggling with Robin and Huntress, she would pin their clothes to the wall only to have them rip them and counterattack; she was tired, he could tell just by looking at her and if he could that meant that so could Faust. He received a blow from Red Shot and Livewire at the same time, struggling to get up he reached out to grab Livewire and placed her in between him and Red Shot making Red Shot fire at her, breaking the figure. Just then an unconscious Robin and Huntress came flying into Red Shot pushing him towards the wall, allowing Batman took this chance to break him.

"Great Job! Just what I expected from one of my creations," said Faust once again leaning over the rail. Batman turned to look at her, but the girl had her eyes on Faust.

"Stop talking," said Nightshade while Batman just stared at her.

"Oh right, I forgot it was supposed to be a secret," he said, "well I guess it doesn't matter anymore," he finished talking right as clay copies of Superman, Wonder Woman and Nightfall emerged from the ground. Batman looked at Nightshade before looking at the three copies, but before Batman could do anything, the girl stopped him.

"Go get Faust, I'll deal with them," she said.

"If these things have even a third of strength and skill as the real ones do, you'll be killed in a few seconds," he said.

"I might be crazy, but I'm not stupid," she said, "there's no way we'll be able to stop Faust if we both stay down here, and between the two of us, I'm more…damage resistant, if you want to put it that way," she told him. He simply gave her a small nod and ran towards the stairs leaving Nightshade with the copies. She mostly avoided Superman and Wonder Woman's punches, but this allowed Nightfall to land many strikes. After receiving a hit from Wonder Woman, Nightshade was sent flying against the wall and then Superman punched her further into it. If the Light was actually expecting her to fight these people, no, defeat them, then they would have gotten an unpleasant surprise. She painfully walked out of the human-shaped hole in the wall and kept on fighting them, her eyes searching for Batman's location, but all she could see was Faust continuing with his spell.

Warsaw, Poland- 5:10 P.M-

Icon and Rocket had been sent to Poland to help with their creature problem. Both of them used their blue and purple energy blasts to destroy the creatures while flying over them. It wasn't until one of the creatures started grabbing citizens and throwing them over its head that Rocket launched herself down into the crowd to grab them and destroy it before it could keep doing it. Icon joined her down on the ground where he started launching energy blasts that would take down more than one creature at the same time.

"Do you think she's doing alright?" asked Rocket as she and Icon tore down those creatures.

"Who? Nightshade? I thought you didn't care anymore," he answered.

"Right, I—I don't. Just trying to make some conversation," she said before smashing one of the creatures against the pavement.

Buenos Aires, Argentina- 12:02 P.M-

Robin and Black Canary were in Buenos Aires. They had managed to keep the creatures at bay, giving the city enough time to evacuate, but it was now getting harder as more creatures showed up. Black Canary jumped on top of a bus that had been abandoned in the street and released a canary cry that managed to shatter most of the newly emergent creatures. Robin on the other hand, was throwing bombs and explosive batarangs to take out as many as he could without wasting too many of his gadgets until he started feeling overwhelmed and jumped up on the bus with Black Canary.

"We're going to have a problem," said Black Canary. "Nightshade better deal with this fast."

"That is if they can," he thought out loud.

-Faust's Tower-

"Come on, hurry up," she mumbled under her breath before a shadow hand appeared from under her and dragged her through the room. Nightshade tried to burn the hand, but the fire didn't seem to affect it; the hand only released her when Superman's clay figure picked her up and threw her through the wall of the tower to leave Nightshade hanging out over the empty space underneath the floating tower. "Hurry the fuck up!" she yelled gathering her strength to push herself up and back inside. Batman ran up the stairs, dodging the flying books and bookshelves that Faust was aiming his way, he ducked a large bookshelf that crashed against the wall and shattered in small pieces. The stairs ahead of him started crumbling, so he leapt and held onto the edge of the balcony with both hands, pulling himself up into the ritual site Faust had set up. Soon, creatures started to emerge from the ground and launched themselves at him. Batman used his explosive batarangs to blow up the creatures and when that didn't work, he punched them until they cracked.

"It's no use Batman, you'll never be able to stop me!" said Faust raising his hands in the air. Batman made his way through the creatures, tackled Faust before he could mutter the last word of his ritual and punched him across the face. Batman then walked up to the table and placed a bomb on it, that he only detonated until he and Faust were down with Nightshade. Once the ritual site was gone, the clay figures disappeared leaving behind a wounded Nightshade and Batman along with a semi-conscious Faust.

"You piece of trash!" said Nightshade taking Faust from Batman's hands. "I was hoping we would meet again soon. You owe me one!" she told him.

"What are you talking about, I just did what she asked," answered Faust.

"No, you messed everything up!" she yelled. Batman grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away from Faust.

"We'll deal with this once we're back at Watchtower," he said, trying to calm the clearly agitated teen. Faust let out a small laugh and snapped his fingers, a gesture that was followed by a loud crumbling noises and falling debris.

"I cannot allow that," he told them, vanishing from Nightshade's hands. Batman pushed the girl away from a falling rock and ran away holding her by the arm.

"Shit! I almost had him," she said following Batman out of the tower. The two of them ran through the collapsing world, the fallen rocks had formed a cleared path for them to follow, but it was rapidly disappearing behind them. Batman dodged more rocks and Nightshade followed his pattern, until they reached the spot right before the portal that seemed to be shrinking with every passing moment. The gap from the place they were standing to the portal was larger than the others, making Nightshade take a few steps back. Batman didn't give her any time to protest before he grabbed her and used his grappling hook to get them to the other side.

Nightshade and Batman landed on the other side of the portal to see the whole Justice League, the team, Lance and Skye waiting for them in the Watchtower. Nightshade laid on her back with Batman next to her, the two of them were just catching their breath and the girl was trying to recompose herself after that fright. Nightshade plopped her head back to see that all eyes were on them, she took a few deep breaths and started getting up from the ground. Seeing this, Robin started walking her way, but Lance ran past him and helped her up before pulling her in for a hug.

"I thought I wouldn't see you for real this time," he said. Surprisingly, Nightshade returned the hug and stayed there for a while. A hand on her shoulder, made her turn around and stare back at Batman's glare under the mask.

"Explain," he told her, the rest of the heroes standing behind him.

"Fine, but I just want to clear up that as always this is Nightfall's fault," she said. "After leaving the Light, she wasn't pleased with the amount of power she had, so she met with Faust and made a deal with him: she sold him half her soul for more power. Instead of increasing her powers, Faust gave her another one, pyrokinesis, and along with it he brought me to life," she explained. "Well, half-life…Nightfall is still the strongest one out of the two of us, but for some reason I'm able to maintain control of Jade's body. The problem comes when Nightfall takes over…I usually don't remember most of what she does, I mean I don't even remember killing Camille," she told them.

"So that day, and the other murders…you had nothing to do with it?" asked Black Canary. Nightshade shook her head.

"But she's not all that innocent either," said Wonder Woman, "She might not be as bad as Nightfall, but she has still committed crimes," she reminded everyone.

"Yeah, well I never said I was innocent. I'm just saying I'm the lesser of two evils," Nightshade cleared up.

"Go home," said Batman. "We'll contact you later," he said and turned to leave but Wonder Woman stopped him.

"You're just going to let her walk away?" asked Wonder Woman.

"We need to keep an eye on her. I assume you will understand that it can't be done from a prison cell," he said and walked away. Wonder Woman looked at Nightshade one more time before going off after Batman. After the League left, the team kept their distance from Nightshade and the siblings, but what discouraged them from talking to her was the glare the girl gave them after Rocket tried to take one step forward. They walked away without saying another word while the three of them walked the opposite way towards the Zeta-tubes, Skye went ahead leaving Lance and Nightshade behind. He grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him before the two of them shared a passionate kiss.

It had been so long since the last time they had seen each other, that they couldn't help themselves the moment they were left alone in the room. Well, at least they thought they were alone, since none of them saw that Robin had turned around to go back to talk to Nightshade. In that moment, everything he wanted to say was erased from his mind, and all he could do was stare at them before finally turning around to leave.


	25. Two-Faced

Mount Justice- April 3- 4:46 P.M-

The team and Batman were in the mission room, they were discussing the events of the last few months after Nightshade had been released from Belle Reve. Since then, whenever Batman and Robin were in the same room, the air turned tense and uncomfortable. They didn't know what had happened, but it looked serious.

"We're continuing with our investigation on the Light. With Dr. Lawrence and Dr. Magnus back, we now know what they are trying to build, we just don't know why," he said. "A few days ago, an informant let us know that a senator from New York has been working as a mole for the Light, he might have important information," Batman stood quietly in front of the computer until an alarm went off showing Two-Face and his goons taking over the New York City Courthouse and holding hostages, among them was the senator Batman had just talked about.

"Aqualad, Superboy and Zatanna. Go take care of that," he ordered them.

"What if Nightshade shows up?" asked Superboy getting ready to leave.

"Do what you see fit," he told them and watched them take off. He then turned around to look at Robin, and the rest of the team. "Robin, come with me. The rest, stand by in case they need back-up," said Batman leaving the others behind as he and Robin walked out of the room.

"In other words, hit the showers," said Artemis out loud.

New York City Courthouse- 5:29 P.M-

Nightshade landed on the building next to the Courthouse, she knew Two-Face was on the first floor, and that his henchmen, along with the hostages, were scattered all over the building. She couldn't go in through the front door, because the NYPD was outside trying to negotiate with Two-Face. She decided that the next best thing would be to enter through a window in the highest floor and then work her way down. Nightshade looked up, she was halfway through, but she still needed to climb the rest of the building and jump towards the Courthouse. She massaged her wrists and started climbing slowly making sure not to fall, or to look down at the ground for that matter.

" _ **Guys, I really need a grappling hook. It looks fun when Batman uses it,"**_ she said getting to the balcony from where she could jump to the Courthouse, "and easy," she muttered under her breath. Nightshade took a few deep breaths before jumping to the other building; she barely managed to hold onto the ledge, her fingers trembled when she thought of the possibility of falling to the ground, so she made sure not to look down and pulled herself up.

" _ **Quit whining, you are already there,"**_ said Lance, and looking at her though the security camera he leaned in while laughing. _**"I just realized that your legs are very short,"**_ he said watching her make her way around the building by walking on the ledge.

" _ **I swear to god I will punch you so hard you will have to breathe through a tube,"**_ she told him finally finding a window she could climb through. The first thing she saw was a group of henchmen with three hostages sitting on the floor with their mouths and hands tied up. One of the goons heard the faint sound of something small rolling on the floor, he looked down to see a little metallic ball rolling up to his foot before bouncing off it.

"What the hell?" he asked leaning down to grab it, when the ball opened and smoke came out. The others turned around, and after seeing the smoke they started shooting into it. Nightshade made her way through the smoke disarming the goons and shooting them in the head with their own guns. One of them grabbed her from behind, he put his arm around her neck, but the girl took his arm and twisted it behind his back before cutting his throat with her knife. As the smoke dispersed, Nightshade leaned down to untie one of the hostages.

"Where's the senator?" she asked, the man simply stared at her terrified. He couldn't believe what a little girl had done to those men, but her glare made him get over his shock. "Talk!" she threatened him with her knife.

"I don't know, they simply took him away, we were separated and placed on different floors," he told her. Nightshade stood up and placed a hand over her ear as she walked away from them.

" _ **Can you get tell me where the other hostages are?"**_ she asked Lance.

" _ **Are you really going to save them all?"**_ he asked, _**"and are you seriously asking me that? I feel insulted,"**_ he asked typing something into his computer allowing him to access the security cameras inside the building. Nightshade didn't answer, she hadn't thought about that, actually she had thought very little during that fight. At this point her body moved on its own, and there was nothing she could do but go with it; the team would just have find a way to deal with it. _**"There's another group right under you,"**_ he told her.

With a trembling hand, the girl grabbed the handrail of the stairs and jumped down, making sure to knock out one of the goons in the process. This time there were five henchmen for seven hostages. The rest stood there for a while trying to process what had just happened until one of them started shooting at her. Dodging the bullets, Nightshade took out her own gun and started shooting back, she made her way towards them and kicking one of their guns she managed to disarm one of the henchmen, she took her gun and shot him in the head. Another one approached her from behind, but all Nightshade did was take out a knife and stab him on the chest, following that with a shot to the face.

She picked up the corpse and used him as a shield against the bullets, but ended up throwing him away when another henchman approached her. The man tried to move his dead partner off him only to be met by a bullet when he tried to stand up. With only two of them left, she finished it quickly by shooting them in the head. Nightshade checked her gun, it had only one bullet left and when she took out the other one, she realized she had left the magazine on top of the desk in the apartment. She banged her head against the wall and stared at the ground for a while; she took deep breaths to contain her anger and the burning desire to punch the wall. While she did that, she noticed the floor was completely covered in blood, and that even the hostages had blood drops all over their bodies, but Nightshade didn't seem to mind, she was too busy thinking about how stupid she was.

Lancewas rather pleased with the scene; he couldn't help but laugh at her as he played around with her magazine. Suddenly he put it down on the desk and sat straight in his chair, _**"Well, this is going to be fun. You have company,"**_ said Lance watching the three team members get in through a window on her floor. Nightshade sneaked into the shadows and watched the team make their way through the corpses on the floor trying not to step on anyone. Superboy and Zatanna had a grossed-out look on their faces while Aqualad didn't seem as surprised. The three of them looked down at the first floor where Two-Face sat in the middle of what the team assumed was the biggest group of hostages. They were forming some sort of shield around him, so it was hard to get close without hurting any of them, the situation was made even worse with the guards keeping a lookout for intruders. While looking around, one of them looked up and managed to catch a glimpse of the team, so he shot in their direction, but only managed to hit the ceiling.

"Hey! What are you doing you idiot?" Two-Face yelled at him after seeing that there was nothing there, "if you're going to be all jumpy, then maybe you shouldn't be here," he said pointing his gun at him. Two-Face took out his double-headed coin and flipped it in the air, after it landed in his hand, Two-Face flashed a smile. The guard shook his head rapidly and let go of the rifle, his eyes begging for mercy which was not granted to him as Two-Face shot him in the head.

Upstairs the team listened to what they were saying while being held down by Nightshade who had pulled them down right before the bullet could hit them. "Was Black Canary the one who taught you how to sneak around? If you keep doing that you're going to get killed, or worse get _me_ killed," she whispered moving away from them. "Either way, what are you doing here?" she asked. The team got up from the ground and walked towards her still trying to avoid the blood.

"The Light is after that New York Senator," answered Aqualad pointing down at the group of hostages with Two-Face. They looked at her, her black and red suit covered the blood that had stained her suit and her long brown and black hair fell on most of her face until she pulled it back.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm here. Why are _you_?" she asked. "Do I need to remind you that this is my city?" The three of them remained silent; they should have known that she would still be going after the Light, after all for her it was personal.

"You went back to killing?" asked Superboy pointing at the bloody mess she had caused. Nightshade looked down to where he was pointing, but instead of saying anything she just shrugged and walked towards the balcony that looked down to the center of the building where Two-Face stood. She examined the room, nine guards were left since he had shot one of them, at least ten or twelve hostages and Two-Face in the middle of everything.

"Yeah well, I'm not part of your team anymore, so why should I follow your stupid rules?" she asked. "It also shuts her up," she said after a long pause in a barely audible tone.

"Nightfall?" asked Zatanna.

"Who else?" she answered with a sad smile plastered across her face. "Look, it's really not my problem what you think of me and right now I'm kind of busy trying to save the senator's ass. So, either help or get the hell out, because this is going to get messy," she said right before jumping down to the first floor and landing on top of a guard. One down, eight more to go, she thought getting ready to face the other one when Two-Face shot in her direction. "You missed," she said turning to look at him.

"This is rather disappointing," he said aiming at her.

"I could say the same. Your goons didn't really put up a fight," said Nightshade raising her hands in the air in an effort to show him she was unarmed. Two-Face flashed a smile with half of his face while the other remained the same burnt half. Disgusting, thought Nightshade as she saw more guards coming out from the corner of her eye.

"You shouldn't have come alone, this is the big leagues kid, and you are definitely not Batman," he told her as the guards formed a circle around her, all of them pointing their rifles at her.

"If you were expecting Batman, you should have stayed in Gotham," she told him, "and who said I was alone?" she asked right before Superboy landed behind her creating a wave that took down some of Two-Face's goons. Right before the others could shoot, Zatanna used a spell to force a small group of henchmen to the floor, and then another one that pushed them up against the wall. Finally, Aqualad landed next to her and the both of them started taking out the rest. Nightshade's first instinct was to reach for her guns, but remembering that she only had one bullet left she took out her knives, and started throwing them at their vital points, killing the goons instead of just maiming them like the rest of the team.

"Nightshade!" yelled Aqualad after he saw what she was doing.

"I. Don't. Care," she said looking at him before dodging a punch to the face and returning it with a punch to the stomach that took the goon down. Aqualad took out his water bearers forming hammers with them and hitting them in the head to knock them down faster. Superboy was making man-shaped holes in the walls of the building as they kept attacking him, one of them jumped at him from the back and tried to choke him, but he grabbed the man and threw him over his head.

Superboy turned around and saw Nightshade jumping off the wall and bouncing on the chest of another goon. After landing on the ground, the girl took one of the goons and broke his arm forcing him to drop the knife to the ground along with him. She lifted her face to see how the others were doing, and that's when she saw that one of Two-Face henchmen was aiming his gun at Aqualad. "Oh come on," she said taking out her gun and using her last bullet to shoot the goon right in the head.

"What are you doing?" he asked a bit infuriated.

"Shut up, I just saved your ass," she told him putting the gun away resuming her fight. Nightshade and the team were doing alright until Two-Face shot one of his goons instead of shooting at Zatanna.

"It's very hard to get useful idiots nowadays," he said still holding his gun out. You could see the anger in his face, his brows were arched and the half of his mouth that could move had turned into a frown. Nightshade found it amusing how horrible his face looked when both sides matched in terms of expression. "Now tell me, who should I shoot first?" he asked looking down at the hostage group. He took out his coin and flipped it one more time, after it landed, he picked up the senator Nightshade was trying to rescue. "You will have to do," he said as a terrified expression grew on the senator's face and he started trembling and crying.

After seeing this Nightshade let go of one of the guards and started walking towards Two-Face. She took out her sword, but stopped walking when she saw a shadow moving in the back of the room, which was at around the same time Two-Face pressed the gun harder against the senator's head. The other three stood still, they couldn't risk his life, and by the look Two-Face had, he wouldn't hesitate to shoot. The atmosphere in the room had turned heavy, Nightshade stood a few feet away from Two-Face while the team stood a few feet behind her, but no one was moving a muscle. The hostages were trembling, and some started to cry loudly. Annoyed, Nightshade took out a gun.

"Go ahead," she said aiming at him. At this point, the team was as surprised as Two-Face, apparently pulling out a gun in this kind of situation was not normal. It took him a while to recover, but he never lowered his gun or loosened his grip.

"What are you doing?" asked Superboy getting ready to go after Nightshade when they spotted Robin standing on the balcony, and somehow, they were sure Nightshade had seen him too. Unfortunately for Lance, that was a blind spot for the security cameras, so he didn't know about the presence of the Boy Wonder, and she couldn't tell him.

" _ **Are you crazy? Nightshade you don't have bullets,"**_ Lance warned her while looking at the screen. Of course she knew that, even if she did have bullets, there was no way she could shoot Two-Face without killing at least one hostage, but all she needed was for him to believe she could.

"You're bluffing," he said. Nightshade smiled pulling down the hammer of the gun.

"Am I?" she asked steadying her grip on the gun as her hand started to shake. She couldn't let him see through her bluff since she was trying to get him to move or loosen up his grip so Robin could take him out. Nightshade moved as if she was going to shoot him, pressuring Two-Face into letting go of the senator and shoot at them. As soon as he did that, Robin came swinging down and hit him on the side forcing him to the ground.

"Dude seriously, so not whelmed," said Robin. At the same time, Nightshade put up a fire barrier around her that melted the bullet

"You have no bullets left, do you?" asked Robin, the room went silent and they all, including Two-Face, turned to look at the girl. Nightshade let out a small laugh and unloaded the gun letting the empty magazine fall to the ground.

"Busted," she said looking at Two-Face. If he knew that, then that meant that Robin had been inside the building for quite some time. "I don't want to ask how you knew that because it think I know the answer," she told him, and while the team focused their attention on them, Two-Face took out his coin and flipped it. When the coin landed on the burnt head, he took out his gun and shot aiming at Nightshade. Luckily for them, the girl noticed and once again melted the bullet.

Two-face laughed while Superboy walked closer and grabbed the gun barrel twisting it so that he couldn't use it. "Oh come on, that is just not fair," said Two-Face right before Superboy grabbed his collar and pulled him up. Trying not to choke with his own saliva while swallowing, Two-Face took out his coin again, "How about we flip. Heads you let me go, tails you can punch me as hard as you want," he said getting ready to flip it when Robin cut into the conversation.

"Just punch him, it's a double-headed coin," said Robin. Superboy showed Two-Face his teeth, like a dog right before he was going to attack. Two-Face fell unconscious to the ground with his bad side looking up. The team turned around to look for Nightshade only to find out that neither she nor the senator were there anymore.

Nightshade had dragged him out the back, she turned the corner of the alley and stopped right in front. "Here," she said pushing the senator towards the darkened corner. "You have five minutes before I have to take him to Mayor Hall." Batman came out of the shadows and took the senator with him only to return him a few minutes later, he was more than a little shook up when he came back out and cowered behind Nightshade.

"Don't forget to report to me next week," he told her, turning his back on her and walking away. Nightshade watched him disappear among the shadows and once she lost sight of him, she took the senator and placed him on the back of her bike that she rode to Mayor Hall's house.

New York City, Mayor Hall's house- 10:54 P.M-

Nightshade kicked the door open and marched around the duplex apartment dragging the senator behind her. "Arthur Hall!" she yelled trying to find him. Finally, he stepped out of his office; a man in his mid-forties, his black hair was now turning white and his once friendly face had been replaced by a stern look as he watched Nightshade drop the senator in front of him. The man lived alone in a huge apartment that was just a couple blocks away from hers, so she had decided to drop by and collect the money personally. "There you have him, partially unharmed," she said. Both men stared at her for a while, before the Mayor turned around to look for a white envelope full of money that sat next to a photo of his days in the NYPD. Nightshade took it and started putting the money away.

"I can't believe you are doing business with this people," said the senator, finally gaining some composure. Arthur Hall looked down at him.

"I thought you wanted to get out alive," he said turning back around to look at the girl. "She was your best option. Either way, she does more good than harm, thought exceptions exist," he said now talking to her about the incident with Poison Ivy.

Nightshade raised her gaze to meet his, "no one died that time, you should be grateful," she told him getting ready to leave.

"I was, that's why I paid you," he said right before his front door was slammed shut.

"How long has this been going on?" asked the senator getting up from the ground. The old man looked at him, his eyes showed a combination of regret and relief. He was eager to share the secret with someone else, and that someone just happened to be him.

"A year, give or take," he said, "when there's something that might get out of hand we call her and then drop the money off somewhere. She usually doesn't come personally," he said lighting up a cigar.

"But she's just a kid. Do you even know who she is?" he asked.

"No idea, and I don't want to know either," he said. The senator's puzzled look told him that he didn't understand why, but he got to say what he wanted to say and that was all that mattered.

Outside, Nightshade stood on the rooftop counting her money. Ever since she had gotten to New York, the Mayor had been paying her to keep things under control, and every time he would pay her a considerable amount of money. This time was no exception.


	26. Venomous

Mount Justice- April 10- 3:45 P.M-

"Do I _look_ like a babysitter to you?" asked Nightshade standing across from Batman in one of the rooms inside Mount Justice, "you do realize I left so that I didn't have to take orders from you, right?" she asked placing her hands on her hips.

"It's not looking after, it's undercover back up, or would you rather assist me in Bialya?" he asked giving her a slight smirk, lately he and Nightshade had developed this strange relationship where he would order her around and she would do it, mainly because she felt she owed him something.

"So it's either Queen Bee or Bane? Are you crazy?! They fucking hate me, Queen Bee would cut my head off so she and Bane could play ping-pong with my it!" she explained, Batman just silently stared at her for a while, it was this piercing judgmental stare she hated so much. She sighed. "Fine, I'll call you when I get to Santa Prisca," she said walking towards the door.

"Report any set back the team encounters, and if they need your help do not hesitate to do it, even if they are reluctant," he told her as she walked out of the room. The teenager rolled her eyes and walked into the hall, she ran a hand through her hair and adjusted it to the side. She walked into the main room to exit the cave when she spotted a white thing rushing towards her, the next thing she knew she was on the floor getting growled at by Wolf. Black Canary walked in just in time to see Wolf on top of Nightshade, her face twisted the moment she laid eyes on her.

"What are you doing here?" asked Black Canary as Nightshade got Wolf off of her.

"Nothing really important, just…you know a weekly meeting to scold me," she answered her question walking past the woman. Ever since Nightshade had come back, Black Canary had been keeping her distance from anything related to her and every time she saw her, her face would twist into a scowl.

"You should be in jail" said Black Canary just as Nightshade walked by. The girl stopped walking just a few steps away from her. Black Canary didn't know anything about what had happened, she might be upset, but that was not her problem. It was hard, but Nightshade restrained herself from replying and simply walked away from the woman. Black Canary followed her with her eyes until she was out of sight, just as the team walked into the cave, she walked up to them to get ready for the training session when Batman interrupted her.

"I need the team," he said walking inside showing them some images of Santa Prisca, "there has been some abnormal activity in Santa Prisca. Bane started producing his venom again but this time there's no evidence of it getting out of the island. I want you to find out what is happening and stop him before he completes his plan," Batman finished and the team rushed off the room towards Miss Martian's ship. Black Canary looked at him, he seemed calm as always and his rough expression made it hard to guess what he was thinking.

"Speaking of plans, what's your deal with Nightshade?" she asked him.

"I'm taking advantage of the fact that Nightshade owes the Justice League a couple of favors, so I sent her as an undercover back up," he said.

"What are you thinking? She's dangerous and not to mention completely unreliable," said Black Canary.

"I don't remember you saying something like that when she volunteered to take down Faust," answered Batman before walking away from her in the opposite direction towards the hangar and got on his plane; on the way, he did some research on Bane, and after a couple of hours a call came in through his comm.

"Hey Batsie, I just got to the island, there are guards on every side of it, they are going to have it though," said Nightshade, she was panting and it sounded as if she was walking.

"Good, keep me posted," he said and resumed his research.

Santa Prisca- 6:37 P.M-

When the team landed on the island they divided in three teams, Aqualad, Superboy, Wolf and Zatanna went through the woods in the back of the island. Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis took the front and approached the lonely warehouse in the middle of the island while Rocket and Miss Martian stayed on the sky ready to provide back up. The first team found guards patrolling the woods, and some other dead guards on the path they were following. Aqualad found this a little suspicious, but they kept sneaking around using Superboy's hearing to avoid the oncoming guards. Soon they found themselves in the middle of four groups of guards coming their way, in an attempt to hide, Zatanna triggered an alarm system tied to sensors that ran along the trees.

Hearing the alarm, the four groups of guards threw themselves at them, Superboy fought them off using his strength, while Aqualad used electricity and Zatanna was casting spells to keep them at bay with Wolf throwing himself at the guard biting them. They were almost done when the guards started getting up, they started glowing green and their clothes started to rip. Soon it was a mix of grunting and tearing, they started getting taller and bigger, and their muscles grew ripping their shirts. "It will take more than that to beat us," one of them said walking closer to the group and taking a swing at Superboy who intercepted the blow.

"Funny I was about to say that," he said and just then Rocket landed taking down some guards, Superboy pulled on his fist and as soon as he was close enough he punched him in the face. Aqualad jumped and kicked another one in the chest pushing him back, he took out his swords and started fighting them off. From the shadows Nightshade watched them, she was about to go out when Rocket landed on the site so she hid back. Wolf noticed her and he growled in her direction, but the team took it as if he was growling to the guards. She leaned down and used an earpiece to listen to what was going on with the other group, but there was complete radio silence.

"Hey Batman, I figured out what Bane is using his venom for, he is creating super—"

"Super soldiers. I know. I'll inform Aqualad," he said, Nightshade rolled her eyes.

"If you knew already then say so, you are so not fun," she said and then glanced back at the group when she heard a loud thud, "Aqualad might be a little busy, you should try Robin. They decided to split up which is kind of stupid if you ask me," she continued looking away from the group and making her way to the other team, Batman didn't say anything, "But of course you didn't ask me. I'll let you know more once I get to the other team," she finished.

On the other side, the others heard the alarm going off but decided to stay focused on their part of the mission. Kid Flash used his goggles to locate the guards as they walked towards the building, they had a clear, direct path towards the building so they hurried over. Just when the building came into view Batman called Robin and told him about the super soldiers, he hung up and warned the team as they got closer. They avoided the guards by sneaking around in the bushes and finally got into the building only to be welcomed by more thugs that where undoubtedly waiting for them.

"Did you really think I didn't see you come in here," said Bane jumping down from the second floor of the warehouse. "Because if so, then you are dumber than I thought," he said cracking his knuckles, and the rest of the thugs started transforming into super soldiers. Miss Martian showed up next to them and got in fighting position.

"Do you think the others are done?" she asked, but no one answered, they didn't know. The first thug charged at them but Miss Martian stopped him with a piece of furniture, he was followed by the others and soon the fight broke out. Artemis started throwing arrows at them to keep them away from the group, but most of them would just rip the arrow off and keep attacking, so she started using explosive arrows that could cause a more permanent effect. On the other side of the room Kid Flash was fighting them head on going as fast as he could to take down as many as he could but they were just getting back up. Robin was having a hard time dealing with Bane, he had decided to go after him since Bane had always held a personal grudge against Batman for reasons that were unclear to Robin. He kicked him and punched him but it didn't seem to bother Bane.

"Come on kid, I know you have more than that," said Bane moving forwards and throwing a punch which Robin avoided letting Bane punch the wall. Robin then took out a couple of birdarangs that, as soon as they landed on Bane, they released an electric charge that forced Bane to the ground. Robin thought that was it and moved back, but then Bane started laughing as he got up and swung his hand he managed to throw Robin against the wall. Walking towards him Bane ripped off the birdarangs and prepared to stab Robin with them, but as soon as he lifted his hand up, the teenage boy that sat on the ground with his back against the wall saw a shadow jumping down in front of him and kicking the birdarang away from Bane's hand.

"It has been a while, never thought I would see you again," said the person whose voice Robin recognized as Nightshade. Bane put his hands down and stared at the young girl standing in front of him, he didn't say anything for a while but then he tried to smash Nightshade who grabbed Robin and moved away from Bane, "I don't know what I expected," she said still holding onto Robin's arms until he cleared his throat, she looked at him and then quickly let go.

"Why are you here?" asked Kid Flash regrouping with the two of them "of course, it's not like I'm complaining or anything, just wondering."

"Batman called her to babysit on us," said Robin getting up, the others had managed to knock the thugs down so the only one left in the room was Bane.

"Well he did call it undercover back up, and it was either this or seeing Queen Bee," said Nightshade as Artemis and Miss Martian slowly approached them keeping their eyes on Bane. He lifted up a table and threw it at them, Miss Martian was about to take it out off course when the table was consumed by blue flames and when it vanished, Bane was enraged by the smirk in Nightshade's face as she held her hand out, so he charged at them.

"What was that?" asked Robin as they all moved out of the way.

"Just a little something I learned recently," she said and then looked at him one more time, "by the way you are welcome," she said before moving out of the way of an oncoming lamp.

"Right, well remind me to thank you when we get out of this one," he told her before running towards Bane and kicking him in the face. The fight when on for a while and then the other half of the group walked into the main warehouse to find the others fighting Bane. Aqualad finally found out who was the one that had killed the first gurads. When Bane saw them, he signaled another group of super soldiers to come in and attack the team who took them all on even though they were beaten and tired from the previous wave of super soldiers they had to fight.

While fighting them, the group heard the sound of a helicopter flying over the island. As soon as that happened, Bane ran away from the group with a case in his hand with Robin and Nightshade right behind him. The trio reached the spot where the helicopter was supposed to land, Robin was the first one to attack Bane, he jumped on top of the massive man and tried to bring him to the ground, but Bane ended up throwing him off. Bane then ran towards Nightshade, but an arrow pierced one of the tubes that provided him with venom and weakened his strength. Nightshade took the chance to kick him in the stomach and push him back into Superboy. He looked at Bane and punched him across the face, Bane pushed him further back and into the wall and lifted him up by the collar. Struggling to get out of his grip Superboy reached out for another one of the tubes and pulled it off forcing Bane to let go.

The helicopter threw down a ladder for him, so the man grabbed the case and threw it into the helicopter before taking the ladder, and that was when he noticed that Robin had started climbing up the ladder to get the case.

"Get back here, kid!" said Bane climbing faster as the helicopter moved further away from the ground. The first one to move was Nightshade who ran over to the ladder and grabbed it, her feet dangling off.

"Great idea! Jump on the fucking helicopter. Fucking genius," mumbled Nightshade while she tried not to look down. Miss Martian and Rocket followed them and helped Robin who had been caught by Bane and was struggling to break free. Nightshade had caught up to them, she grabbed Bane's foot and tried to pull him off, but the man just kicked her away. With the distraction the girls had caused, Robin had managed to climb up to the helicopter and reach for the case, though one of the soldiers showed up in the cabin and kicked him back to the door. Robin managed to hold onto the edge of the door and kicked back the soldier, he was going to knock him out when Bane showed up behind him and pulled him over the edge of the helicopter.

"Oh crap," said the Boy Wonder as he fell, unable to get a hold of the ladder until a hand grabbed his; he looked up to see Nightshade holding onto the ladder and his hand.

"Hey!" Yelled Nightshade getting Miss Martian's attention, "he's too heavy, I gotta let go!" she said. Miss Martian nodded and the moment Nightshade let go of Robin, she flew down to grab him and place him safely on the ground. Nightshade kept climbing slowly as her shaking hands held on tightly, she managed to get close to the door only to see Bane looking down at her holding a knife in his hand. When his knife cut the rope ladder, Nightshade managed to jump over to the edge of the helicopter and hold on, she tried to haul herself over the edge, but Bane pushed her back with his boot. "Oh come on, that's disgusting!"

"Apuesto a que jamás habías estado tan cerca de la muerte," he told her leaning down before stepping on her hand forcing her to let go. Nightshade fell out of the helicopter that was now flying over the water, the empty feeling in her stomach grew as she got closer to the water, in that moment she realized she wasn't as afraid of high places as she was of falling. The feeling stopped when she felt someone's arms around her, she looked up to see Rocket flying back to the nearest piece of land.

"We should do this more often," said Nightshade looking up at Rocket who dropped her to the ground the first chance she had. "Okay, I got the message," she said standing up and rubbing her back as Rocket landed next to her.

"How've you been?" Asked Rocket.

"Good…good," she answered, "you?"

"Fine, it's been mostly uneventful," answered Rocket. "Listen Jade, I—I'm sorry. I should have trusted you. We all should have," she said and much to her surprise, Nightshade let out a small smile.

"I get it. I mean I understand why you didn't," she told her just as Miss Martian's ship landed next to them.

"You two alright?!" asked Kid Flash, running up to them. Both girls nodded and smiled at each other before Rocket walked up to the ship.

"How's Robin?" she asked.

"He's getting grilled by Aqualad, though he did manage to get a sample of the serum Bane is using," answered Kid Flash. He hadn't seen Nightshade in a while and to be honest, he missed her on the team, it just wasn't the same without her anymore.

"How do you plan on getting back?" asked Artemis popping her head out of the ship.

"Someone's picking me up!" she yelled back, not letting the girl offer the ship as a way back to New York. After hearing that, Kid Flash said goodbye and ran back to the ship; Nightshade watched as the door closed behind him and they took off.

-Unknown location-

"Bane's operation was interrupted by the team of young heroes, Nightshade was with them. It seems to me that our little experiment can no longer be left alone to run around freely, which is why I request your support to initiate the termination of project Nightfall." Said Luthor, staring back at the other members of The Light.

"Weren't you the one that opposed that plan the first time we suggested it? Why the sudden change?" Asked Brain.

"It has become clear that she can't be controlled, and what's the use of a weapon if you can't control it?" He answered.

Manhattan, New York City- April 12- 9:06 A.M-

"This is just in; prominent New York City senator was found murdered in his New York apartment. The authorities are investigating what happened, but so far it looks like the senator was found in unrecognizable conditions. Police say that the brutality of this murder makes it harder to investigate, but they expect to at least be able to determine the cause of death soon. We'll keep you updated when the police release more information to the public," the newscaster said while showing footage of the covered body being wheeled out of the apartment.

"Jade!" yelled Lance for the girl that came out of his room wearing just one of his shirts. She walked up to him and sat down on the spot next to him before looking at the screen. "Do you know what happened?" he asked.

"No. The Light probably found out he had spoken to Batman," she said.

"Are you sure?" his question was met by silence while Jade stared closely at the screen.

"No."


	27. Relation

New York City- April 23- 2:38 A.M-

An old man had been trying for the last fifteen minutes to pry open a designer store in the middle of the empty street. Using his last pin, he finally managed to open the door and run inside. The man cleared out the register and took some other things of value from the store, put them in his backpack and ran out of there. He had run a block or so when a bike stopped right in front of him, the owner of the bike didn't have to take of their helmet for the old man to know who it was.

"N—Nightshade," he said, prompting her to take of her helmet.

"Samuel," she said. "What do you have there?" She asked without getting off her bike.

"Look, I know I shouldn't be doing this, but my grandkids are sick and my daughter lost her job…I—I can't go to jail," he explained. "P—please." Nightshade didn't say anything, she simply put her helmet back on and started up her bike.

"Get on Sam, I'm taking you home," she said. The old man reluctantly got on her bike and told him where to drop him off. To his surprise, she drove past the police station and directly to his run-down home.

"Th—thank you," he told her before running off and into his apartment. Nightshade didn't move until she saw the man getting to his apartment and hand his daughter the bag of cash; it didn't take long for the two kids, an eight-year-old and a three-year-old, to wave down at her. Nightshade waved back and smiled before driving off. She made it back the department store and walked into the security room where she then deleted all the security footage, erasing all evidence that Samuel had been in that store.

"Hey! I know you're following me, so you might as well step out," said Nightshade still inside the store. She had noticed Zatanna had been following her for a while now. The girl stepped down from the rooftop she was in and landed right outside of the store.

"I didn't think you would let him go," she said looking back in the direction she and the petty thief had left.

"Yeah well, I'm not the monster everyone thinks I am...at least not always. He has 2 grandkids and needs the money, he was just thrown into that life. Anyway, the store won't miss the money," she said adjusting her gloves.

"But he stole money," said Zatanna. "And you basically helped him."

"Look, I know you think the world is either black or white, but there's a huge gray area in between. There's people that do bad things for the right reasons as well as there are those that do good things for the wrong ones," she said looking into Zatanna's eyes. "In case you're still wondering, I'm the latter," she finished talking and walked away along the road towards her bike. Once she was on, they two of them heard a loud noise coming from the streets. They didn't have to wait long to find out who it was since Harley Quinn drove right past them on a stolen car. The three of them made eye contact just as they drove by with the police car right behind them. "Get on," said Nightshade to which Zatanna complied and got on the back of the bike that took off after them.

Gotham City, Ace Chemicals- 3:43 A.M-

Zatanna and Nightshade followed her to the old Ace Chemicals building. The girl parked her bike away from the building and the two of them walked inside through the open door that Nightshade closed so they wouldn't get away. They looked around the front and then moved to the back of the building where the abandoned offices had a thick coat of dust covering every inch; they reached a path that led to different sides, the right one led to the factory and the left side led to more offices. Nightshade looked down the left and she saw a shadow running along the hall; without telling Zatanna the girl ran off after the shadow and by the time Zatanna noticed and was about to go after her, Harley Quinn attacked her from behind, forcing her to take the right.

Zatanna turned around to see Harley running after her with a mallet and just behind her more thugs had appeared; Zatanna used a spell to freeze the floor and they fell over, all of them except for Harley that merely jumped over the ice cape and kept running.

"Come on, I just want to play! I promise I won't harm ya…Much," yelled Harley as she laughed hysterically. Zatanna glared at Harley and then turned her head to the front to see a dead end, gulping once she reached the wall she turned around to fight Harley. Zatanna ducked as Harley swung her mallet at her and from the floor she did a round house kick that forced Harley to the ground. Taking the opportunity Zatanna ran off in the other direction, but Harley quickly got back on her feet and followed her, "Okay, I didn't like that," she said turning around the corner while looking at the girl's back.

Zatanna looked back at Harley, and while she did she ran into a girl that looked right around her age if not younger, red head and a black, green and purple suit with a big question mark on the chest. Harley prepared herself to hit Zatanna with her mallet and Zatanna didn't even have time to get up when someone stepped on the red head's back, jumped over her and kicked Harley in the face. Zatanna looked up to see Nightshade standing in front of Harley so she jumped up and stared at her.

"Where did you ran off to?" she asked.

"I was going after Enigma, but she brought me back here," she explained pointing at the red head that had just gotten up from the ground. A grunting sound forced both girls to turn around to see Harley Quinn lifting her mallet once again with a slight scowl on her face, on the other side Enigma was already up and ready to attack.

"Oh Nighty Night! You received my invitation," she said adjusting the mallet over her shoulder. Henchmen walked into the room and that was when the girls understood it was a trap, they were surrounded and the only way out was by fighting them. Zatanna made the first move, she used a spell to push some of them back while Nightshade was taking out her knives; she started throwing them around pinning them to the wall or stabbing them on the shoulder. Harley and Enigma joined the fight when the number of henchmen started to go down rapidly; Harley went straight for Zatanna while Enigma resumed her fight with Nightshade.

Zatanna tried to dodge Harley's hits at the same time as she tried to get rid of more henchmen. _**"Zatanna to Robin,"**_ she called out on her comm. _**"Robin are you busy?"**_

" _ **Z? Are you alright?"**_ he answered hearing the girl a bit agitated, _**"We're not doing anything big, do you need backup?"**_ he asked, Zatanna looked over at Nightshade, she was handling Enigma and the thugs.

" _ **That would be very useful actually,"**_ she said kicking a thug away from her, Robin agreed and hung up. Zatanna had to avoid the unconscious flying bodies of the thugs that Nightshade was throwing her way, she was now using her powers and thus, she was getting rid of them faster.

"Now this is a show," said Harley as she hit Zatanna with the mallet. The girl managed to take it without passing out, but it did leave her a bit light-headed. Nightshade took out her sword and struck them down, she just ran her sword through the thugs killing them. Zatanna started using her powers to corner the other part of the thugs against the wall and then she tied them all together with the pipes that ran along the old building leaving the original four girls in the room.

" _ **Zatanna? We're getting close to the building. How's the situation in there?"**_ asked Aqualad on the other side of the comm.

"Oh, about that little team of yours," started Enigma, "after Nightshade closed the door, all the other entrances were locked, and just to keep this a private party, there's bombs on every possible entrance. So the moment they come in…"

"Ka-boom!" yelled Harley throwing her hands in the air; Nightshade and Zatanna looked at each other.

"Call them off," said Nightshade, Zatanna drew her hand closer to her ear.

" _ **Guys, there are bombs on every entrance. Don't come in here,"**_ she said keeping her eyes on Harley and Enigma.

" _ **Are you sure?"**_ asked Aqualad.

" _ **Not really, but you are not about to find out, so stay out of the building,"**_ she said, and just as she did Nightshade pulled her out of the way of an oncoming flying mallet. "Are you fucking crazy!" she yelled at Harley who was smiling at them.

"I'm going to save you some breath and just say yes," answered Nightshade taking out two knives and throwing them at both girls pinning them to the wall.

"Nightshade! Don't run away!" yelled Enigma. Nightshade grabbed Zatanna's hand and ran deeper into the building.

"Ask Robin if he has the blueprints of this place, we need to get out of here or else those two are going to kill us," she said taking a turn. Zatanna looked at Nightshade, there was something different about her, now that she wasn't on the team it was as if she was less restrained.

" _ **Robin, do you have the blueprints of the building?"**_ she asked running behind Nightshade, hearing Harley and Enigma's footsteps.

" _ **Are you kidding? We've been tracking you for the last hour. If you keep going straight you'll find the exit, to your next right there's the center of the plant where they kept all the chemicals in containers, so keep going. Z, how are you going to get out?"**_ he asked as he and the others looked at the screen coming off his wrist. A single green dot lit up and moved along the corridors, then suddenly instead of heading for the nearest exit she turned to the right. _**"What are you doing?!"**_ He asked looking at the screen.

" _ **I don't know. Where are we going?"**_ she asked not realizing the comm was still on.

" _ **Z? Who's with you?"**_ he asked, but then she noticed and tuned the earpiece off. Nightshade had taken the right turn and they were now in the main chamber of Ace Chemicals. Four, empty large containers sat on the room with a long but tight catwalk that hung above them. Nightshade climbed the stairs and stepped into the walkway.

"Nightshade what are you doing?" asked Zatanna stepping into the catwalk just as Harley and Enigma came in from behind.

"I'm trying to get us out of here. Thought it was obvious," she answered as they both backed away from the other girls. "Harley you still owe me a favor, and a big one. So just let us out and this won't hurt as much," she reminded her to which Harley smiled.

"Sorry Nighty Night, but I don't do favors," she said and took out a gun. Nightshade managed to dodge the bullet by ducking at the same time as she took one of the pipes that belonged to the broken handrail of the platform and threw it at Harley hitting her in the stomach. This time Enigma charged at Zatanna and started throwing punches; she took some of them until she pushed her away which resulted in Enigma falling into one of the containers not being able to get back into the catwalk.

"That's actually not a bad idea," said Nightshade looking at Zatanna from the corner of her eye as she avoided Harley's hits. She turned to the side and leaned back on the handrail as she raised her leg to kick Harley in the face. Unfortunately for Nightshade, the handrail came off and she started falling down into another container only to be caught by Zatanna who had used a spell to be able to levitate right up to Nightshade. "If you can fly then do it sooner," she said as they landed back on the catwalk.

"I'm sorry I thought I was saving you," she answered back. Harley stood on the far end of the catwalk ready to strike again when she noticed that Nightshade had stopped looking at her and instead she was focusing on the small glass window that led to the roof of the building and that was when Harley realized that there were no bombs in that window. She reached out for her gun one more time and, as she ran closer, she shot this time aiming at Zatanna. Nightshade heard the shot, but by the time she looked, Zatanna had already been shot in the shoulder.

Nightshade lit her hand on fire and started throwing fireballs at Harley, and when that didn't work, she created surrounded Harley in fire, trapping her inside. "Come on, Nighty Night!" she said. "This is not fair!" Nightshade ignored Harley and leaned down next to Zatanna, she helped the girl cover the wound and then pulled her up. Zatanna grabbed the handrail to support herself as the sting of the wound extended to the rest of her body.

"Is this supposed to hurt so much?" she asked.

"It gets worse if you move," answered Nightshade, the two of them turned around the moment they heard Harley laughing hysterically, her hand holding a trigger and before they knew it she had pressed the button and a series of explosives went off.

"Have fun, Nighty Night," said Harley before rushing off into the building. Hearing this from the outside the team rushed in to help only to find Nightshade holding Zatanna and Enigma who was yelling from the bottom of the container. Superboy jumped down to get Enigma and then returned to the catwalk with the handcuffed teen where the others tried to get Zatanna out of the building before it fell on top of them.

"Wait, wait…slowly," she said in between coughs and pants. Zatanna fell on Nightshade's arms and when the girl helped her back up, they team noticed the blood in her hands and they realized that she had been shot, their gazes immediately landed on Nightshade who shook her head.

"Get her out of here," said Nightshade handing the now unconscious girl to Kid Flash.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm going after Harley," she said before running off in the direction Harley had left. She ran deeper into the building until she finally reached the stairs to the second floor of the office side of the building. There she found Harley playing with her mallet, Nightshade hit her in the back of the hear with her closed fist before extending out her hand.

"What was that for?" asked Harley reaching down her cleavage to retrieve a small USB that she placed in Nightshade's hand. The girl took the USB and put it inside her belt.

"You went all out didn't you?" She asked looking around the burning building.

"Well, I had to make it look realistic," answered Harley, her hand still clutching the trigger. "By the way ya made a mistake, I was on the right."

"You didn't say you were bringing Enigma with you. I thought you were there."

"And ya didn't say ya were bringing that little magic girl. She hit me really hard, that brat!" She squealed.

"Yeah, about that. You didn't have to shoot her!" Said Nightshade hitting Harley in the head again.

"I didn't kill her!"

"Yeah but because you have horrible aim, not for lack of trying!" she told her.

"Anyway, I gave ya the thing ya asked for. So now we're even, right?" Asked Harley, eager to leave.

"Barely, but this will have to do," she said touching the pouch on her belt. "Careful with that," she said to the Harley that was playing with the trigger.

"Come on, everything already blew up," she said pressing it and detonating the last bomb that had somehow remained inactive. Nightshade and Harley ducked to avoid the blast that only fed the already raging inferno inside the abandoned factory. "Well, almost everything," Harley shrugged while Nightshade glared at her. Nightshade turned around to look at the damage the blast had caused, but when she turned back to Harley, she discovered that she had left without her noticing. Nightshade sighed and left through the nearest exist casually walking through the flames and the fallen debris until she met Artemis and Aqualad who had seemingly been waiting for her.

"Where's Harley Quinn?" asked Aqualad seeing as the girl had come out empty handed.

"She got away," answered an unbothered Nightshade. "Don't worry, I'll find her. You should get back to Zatanna, getting shot hurts you know?" she said nonchalantly leaving the two of them behind and getting on her bike before driving off.

Mount Justice-

The next time Zatanna opened her eyes, she was on an I.V drip lying on the bed inside the infirmary of the cave. She slowly sat on the bed and looked at her bandaged shoulder, it hurt terribly when she moved so she winced with every position shift. She looked around, this time no one was inside, she was all alone in the room. The door opened and Batman walked inside accompanied by Robin, he looked at her before walking closer to the bed.

"It will take a while, not only you were shot, but the bone was also fractured, so the recovery will be slow. You lost a lot of blood," he said looking at the teenager. "For now, just rest." Zatanna stared at Batman for a while before sinking back on her pillow. Honestly, she had no energy to argue with that. Robin walked up to her and sat down on the bed; it was official, any sort of movement hurt her, even the bouncing of the springs in the mattress hurt her arm. She was in the middle of recovering from that when the rest of the team rushed into the room.

"Thank god you're alright!" said Miss Martian as she hugged her, the rest of the team filled the room leaving Batman in the background. Yeah, yeah. Now get off of me, you have no idea how much it hurts, she thought as the team got a bit closer. "We were really worried," she continued.

"Super worried," said a familiar sarcastic tone coming from the doorway. They turned around to see Nightshade standing there, leaning against the doorframe.

"Nightshade," said Zatanna, a little surprised that the girl would show up.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Better…I guess," answered Zatanna. Nightshade nodded and started walking away from the room, but not before giving one last piece of advice.

"Be careful not to reopen that wound," she said.

Wayne Manor-

Bruce Wayne grudgingly walked into his study for some last-minute work on a mattered required for Wayne Enterprises. He sat down on his big black chair, his bones aching with every movement he made. It wasn't until he had settled down in his chair that he noticed the out of place CD with a note attached to it that read: 'got something for you – JC' reluctantly, Bruce inserted the CD and opened the only file it had. A list that showed the name of every guard, inmate or employee that had ever worked, work or had been/was in Arkham Asylum appeared on his screen. After the list came another one that showed if any of those people could have a connection to the Light, and with whom that connection might be established. Bruce kept scrolling until he reached the last page with another note from Jade at the bottom: 'you owe me a thousand dollars for this'. Bruce closed the document and removed the CD to take it downstairs to the Batcomputer, forgetting entirely about his Wayne Enterprises work.


	28. Hunted

New York City- May 29- 12:43 P.M-

"Mister Wayne, this is Jade Collins. She's the young girl from New York that got the scholarship to NYU. She'll be working with you to promote this education project in Gotham as well," Bruce Wayne extended his hand to shook hers while planting a fake, but charming smile on his face. She had fixed herself up for the press conference, her hair was half up and half down. Her once waist-length hair had been cut to trim out the black parts leaving just brown, mid-length hair that matched nicely with the dark blue dress they had put her in.

"I heard about you in the news. I also heard you postponed your entrance," he told her, knowing exactly why she had to postpone her entrance to NYU.

"Well I wanted to have some time off, after all I'm still very young," she answered with an equally fake smile. "You might remember how it felt to be my age, even if it was a long time ago," she said, squeezing his hand harder than before. The mayor let out a nervous laugh and led them towards the room where the press conference would be taking place.

"Don't break into my house again," muttered Bruce as they walked side by side.

"Thought you would like to see that," she answered. The two of them felt silent, the only sound in the hall was her heels hitting against the marmol floors.

"How did you get that information?" he asked her, breaking the long silence.

"I have my sources," she answered.

"Legal?"

"Of course not," she answered, "well I guess in that aspect we're not so different." Finally, they reached the door to the press room and flashed a smile at Hall after he turned around to look at them. The doors closed behind them and the press conference started. The reporters asked about the new education program that would allow people with lower incomes to advance their studies without drowning in debt through a new scholarship program Wayne Enterprises would be doing in both Gotham and New York City. They asked why Jade would be part of the program's development, a question that she answered by saying that she believed education was essential to the progress of the country and that she hoped she could reach out to the public to apply to the program regardless of their conditions. The press conference proceeded with similar questions for an hour before it ended showing Bruce Wayne and Jade Collins standing next to each other with big smiles plastered on their faces.

"What a bunch of bullshit," said Lance as he turned off the T.V. in the living room.

"It's true though," said Skye who was sitting down next to him on the couch. She reached down for the chips that sat on Jade's lap.

"I don't know, I kind of agree with Lance. There's a lot of educated people out there that are just assholes," she said, throwing a chip into her mouth. The three of them were enjoying a relaxing day at home when an alert went off. "Ughhh…what is it?" asked Jade getting up from the couch and slowly walking towards her room.

"Looks like there's some freak in 11th avenue causing explosions," he told her, "Mayor Hall says he'll pay you double if you deal with it quickly," said Lance waiting for the girl to come out of her room completely dressed in her suit. After a couple of minutes, she stepped out, the only thing that was missing was her guns that were sitting on top of the kitchen counter, she grabbed them and while she finished up, Lance filled her in on the specifics.

11th avenue, New York City- 5:32 P.M-

Nightshade arrived on her bike to see a large crowd fleeing from the buildings and the streets as small-scale explosions flooded the place. Nightshade drove through the smoke and the crowd until she saw the man at the center of it all, a man in camo pants, military boots and an anti-bullet vest that was covered by a dark blue jacket. He was standing on top of a small building, throwing explosives from up there. Nightshade looked up to him, her eyes landing on the sky mask that covered every bit of his face, but his eyes.

"Let me guess, you're the identity crisis man," said Nightshade looking at his mixed up get up, before getting out of her bike. "No? Too on the nose, huh?" she said. As soon as she stepped down from her bike, the man threw a grenade at her, much to Nightshade's surprise. The girl dodged it, but let the flames surround her only to extinguish them with a single hand movement. The man had moved closer to her so the moment she walked out of the flames, he was right there in front of her to punch her right in the face. Nightshade fell to the ground, the lingering pain in her jaw and the taste of blood in her mouth didn't seem to bother her much because she got right back up and kicked him in the stomach.

"Well trained, just what I expected," he said.

"what did you say? I can't hear you through the sock you have on your head," she said, which must have angered him, because he released two grenades that exploded right next to her. "Aw come on!" she said, "who the fuck uses grenades in close combat?" The girl asked ignoring the ringing in her ears.

" _ **He does…apparently,"**_ answered Lance through the comm.

"The name's Detonator," the man cleared up. Nightshade stopped for a second, she had heard that name somewhere before but she just couldn't remember when.

" _ **Why does it sound so familiar?"**_ asked Lance echoing her thoughts. Nightshade didn't have more time to think about it since she had to move out of the way of an oncoming kick. The girl dodged the kick but she wasn't so lucky with the punch that hit her directly in the face. _**"Wait…Isn't he…no way. Nightshade, I think he's from…"**_ he started, but Nightshade cut him off.

"the seven men of death." After hearing the name, the man stopped fighting Nightshade and stood up straight, giving the girl some room to move further away from him. Though she couldn't see it, she knew that underneath that mask he was grinning, and just that thought send a shiver down her spine.

"So you've heard about us," he said taking out another grenade, he carefully removed the pin and threw it at Nightshade. Reacting quickly, she covered herself in flames to avoid being pushed away by the blast. When the smoke and fire dispersed, the girl remained in the same spot she had been standing.

"It's like you don't even try," she told him, getting out a couple of knives that she threw at him, the first knife hit him in the shoulder, while the second one struck his leg. "How many of those grenades you've got there?" She asked taking out a few more knives.

"Enough," he answered.

"Seriously, get that sock off your face. I can barely hear you," Nightshade moved out of the way from another grenade while throwing another knife at Detonator that hit his shin making him fall to the ground and release a painful scream. "Even your screaming is muffled. Time to rethink your outfit." Nightshade took out her sword and was ready to deliver the final blow right to his face when Detonator pulled out a grenade and blew it up right there. Nightshade didn't have time to do anything and ended up being blown away by the blast; the girl landed on the other side of the street, her ears were ringing and she was struggling to find some balance, but as the smoke cleared, she could she his figure running away from the site.

"Hey Asshole! You're just running away because I was winning!" She yelled after him. "Shit." She said under her breath when she realized she had broken quite a few ribs thanks to the blast.

" _ **You do know he was trying to…"**_ said Lance.

" _ **Yeah."**_

" _ **And if he's here, the other will also probably try to…"**_

" _ **I know Lance,"**_ she said, still looking in the direction he had left.

" _ **So, what are you going to do?"**_ He asked. Nightshade ran a hand through her hair and let out a loud sigh.

 _ **"I need more information."**_

Undisclosed location-

"I want to say it's been a while, but I was seriously hoping I wouldn't have to see you again," said the figure of a man that was facing multiple computer screens. He never looked back towards the door while it closed shrouding them in darkness.

"Don't worry, the feeling is mutual," answered Jade as she made her way towards the man, the heel of her boots resounding in the tile floor. "I need to cash in a favor. You know, one of the many you owe me for feeding your database," she told him. A grin grew across the man's face, his eyes looking for the file he knew she was looking for, the file titled 'the seven men of death'.

"It's always nice to take one of those off the list," he answered, sticking his face closer to the screen. "Now scram before someone knows you're here," he told her, handing her a USB. Jade put the USB in the pocket of her leather jacket and walked back out the room, leaving the man back in darkness.

Wayne Manor- June 3- 4:20 P.M-

Jade stopped in front of the big black gates that surrounded the famous Wayne Manor, it gave the place a certain gloomy atmosphere and the tall trees with withered leaves didn't help fix that. She took off her helmet and then got off her bike; she reached out for the doorbell but then she pulled her hand back. "Nope, I can't do this," she said and started to walk back, her footsteps cracking as she stepped on the dry leaves. She turned her head back and let out a small grunt "Fuck. Fine," she said but every time her hand got close to the doorbell she would pull it back. Instead of trying she started to pace back and forth until her thoughts were interrupted by a buzzing sound followed by a voice coming out of the intercom.

"Miss Collins, as entertaining as this is I would like to know whether you are coming in or not. Or could it be that you'll be waiting for Master Bruce and Master Richard outside?" asked Alfred in his distinctive English accent. "If you are, make yourself useful and pull out the weeds, the gardener couldn't make it today," he said and buzzed off. Jade rushed towards the intercom and pressed the button.

"Um…Do I know you?" she asked over the intercom, but no one answered. "It's Alfred, right? Do you mind if I wait inside?" she asked and after a few seconds the gate opened. She placed her bike behind a tree and walked over to the now opened door of the manor where Alfred was waiting for her.

"What an unpleasant surprise," he said looking at the girl and extending his hand to take her coat. Jade took it off without looking at him, she was too busy admiring the inside of the manor. She had been to the Batcave, but this place was equally fascinating; the old architecture stood out as it was perfectly paired with fancy arrangements that decorated the walls and the ceiling.

"Again, do I know you?" she asked finally looking up at him. "Because people tend not to like me, but that's only after they've met me," she told him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well now that I have met you, my opinion remains unchanged," he told her. "May I ask why you're here?" he asked directing her to the living room.

"Just…delivering something," she answered examining every inch of the path she was taking to the living room. The girl sat down on the big fancy white couch and started rummaging through her bag.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" he asked.

"No thanks, do you have coffee? I could really use some," she said sinking on the couch. Alfred came back with a cup of black coffee and placed it in front of her on the wooden table, "thank you. I haven't been able to sleep well lately," she said trying to fill out the awkward silence.

"Could it be a guilty conscience?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Funny, but no." she answered taking a large sip of her coffee. Just then they heard the sound of a car coming up the driveway. Alfred left to open the door and greeted Bruce and a young black-haired boy that wasn't Dick Grayson; the old man took their coats and led them inside the manor. The three of them then walked back into the living room to see a note written along with a package. 'I tried using the front door this time.' Bruce examined the package carefully before opening it, there was a list of names along with an SD card and another note: 'I need your help keeping Lance and Skye safe. I don't think I can do this alone.' Bruce crumpled the small pieces of paper before excusing himself to his office.


	29. Hooked

New York City- June 19- 9:00 P.M-

Nightshade sped through the city in her bike, she made her way through the heavy traffic not even stopping at the red lights. Right behind her, two assassins that belonged to The Seven Men of Death had been following her closely for the last few blocks. The civilians that she left behind on the streets ran out of their cars before the two men would hurt them as they hopped form car to car. Nightshade looked back, not only were they still behind her, they had managed to close the distance between them.

"Shit," said the girl, the sound of her voice muffled by the helmet she was wearing.

" _ **Take a left now, there's a construction site up ahead. Maybe you can take them out there,"**_ said Lance, following the red dot on his computer as it made its way through a map of the city. Nightshade took a sharp left turn around the corner, dodging the hook that had been launched from one of the assassins' hand. _**"According to the files you got, those two are Maduvu and Hook. Maduvu has a pair of sharp claws that can cut through mostly everything and Hook can launch his hook, be careful though, it's pretty sharp too,"**_ he told her. Nightshade spotted the construction site ahead and accelerated before driving her bike right into the place.

"Did you see where she went?" asked Hook as he and Maduvu walked into the terrain. The other man shook his head and they looked around for either the girl of the bike. It wasn't until a few minutes had passed that they heard the sound of an engine, they turned around and saw the lone motorcycle right in front of them. "What the hell…" said Hook right as the bike accelerated towards them giving the two just a few seconds to get out of the way. Nightshade then jumped out from behind them and stabbed them with her knives on the shoulder.

"Ready to give up?" she asked, pulling out the knives from their bodies. She got ready to throw the knives at them, but was interrupted when hook launched his prosthetic at her and since she was so close to him, she didn't have enough time to move out and the hook hit her in the arm making a large cut. "Idiots," she said covering the wound with her hand. Maduvu stepped up in front of Hook, his claws glimmering in the moonlight right before he launched himself at her and she was forced to run away and hide.

"Come out you little bitch!" yelled Hook as the two of them looked for her. Nightshade watched them while hiding behind a stack of beams on the other side of the terrain.

"We haven't seen you in months and when we do see you, you're being chased down by not one, but two killers?" asked Rocket. "What the hell did you do?" The girl who had shown up behind Nightshade startled her more than she was willing to admit. She looked up and saw that the rest of the team had ambushed Hook and Maduvu allowing her to relax a little.

"Of course you haven't seen me, I was avoiding you to prevent…. _this_ ," she answered. "And not everything has to be my fault,"

"Yeah right," said Kid Flash as he passed by the group followed by Artemis.

"Why am I not surprised?" said the blonde after briefly coming out from behind the cover to shoot a couple of arrows at them. Red Shot and Livewire had joined the team after thinking that Nightshade wouldn't be able to beat them on her own, something that deeply insulted her. Red Shot looked at the spot Nightshade was hiding only to receive a death glare by the girl.

"Okay it might be my fault, I'm just not sure why yet. What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Helping you out," answered Kid Flash. "Also, Aqualad told us to protect you. It's pretty clear they're after you," he told her. While they four of them took cover and protected Nightshade, the rest of the team had charged right at them. The two of them proved to be quite a handful for them. Maduvu was fast and his claws had injured even Superboy who's thick skin hadn't been able to protect him from those claws. Hook was able to launch ranged attacks with his hand, and he was strong enough to hit more than one target with a single swing. He had gotten much better since the last time they had faced him.

With Miss Martian, Zatanna, Aqualad and Superboy heavily injured, Robin, Red Shot and Livewire where the only ones that could still attack them head on. Hook moved closer to Livewire and cut her with the tip of his hook across the leg in an attempt to incapacitate her, but instead of walking the girl just started flying, hitting him with lightning. Maduvu managed to get behind Robin and Zatanna, and with each hand, he stabbed them both on the shoulder and he only let go when Zatanna cast a spell that pulled him away from them. The claws hurt as much going out as they did going in.

"It's a massacre out there," said Nightshade.

"I'm going. Stay with Nightshade," said Artemis. The girl took out an explosive arrow and shot Maduvu, keeping him further away from the team. With the help of Wolf, Aqualad managed to pull hook away from Livewire and Red Shot. Things seemed to have turned around until the two of them overpowered the team and cornered them.

"What do we do?" asked Zatanna looking at Aqualad.

"Stay together, anything we do will hurt the others," he said. "Try to push them away," he commanded. Robin looked at Maduvu and Hook, the two of them were standing under a platform the seemed rather weak. Without anyone noticing, he sneaked away from them and onto the platform where he tried to detach it, but Maduvu noticed and jumped onto the platform cornering an already injured Robin. Livewire tried to drive him away, but the man kept avoiding her hits much to her frustration. The two of them leaving, had left the other vulnerable to Hook's attacks, so a desperate Robin started rummaging through the pouches on his belt until he found the close-range bombs Lance had given Batgirl when they faced Amazo.

"Wait…what is Robin doing?" asked Rocket getting the attention of the other two.

"No way…No!" yelled Nightshade spotting the familiar pellets in his hand and running off towards the group. When Rocket and Kid Flash noticed, they ran after her and reached the group just in time to be caught in the explosion along with the rest. Nightshade's ears were ringing when she tried to get up, Miss Martian and Aqualad had been knocked out by the flames, Red Shot and Livewire were helping the others get up from the ground. She moved her hands in a circle and closed her fists extinguishing the remaining flames and allowing Miss Martian and Aqualad some room to recover.

"What did you do man?" asked Kid Flash, going up to help Robin up. He was about to answer when he spotted Nightshade walking up to them. Kid Flash turned around to look at the girl and that was when the two of them saw two sharp claws coming out of Nightshade's stomach.

"NO!" Yelled Livewire, drawing everyone's attention to the claws that were making their way up Nightshade's torso. The team stood back in shock, unsure what to do while Maduvu cut up her insides. Everything got worse when Nightshade's mouth flooded with blood when she tried to speak; it mixed with the blood coming out of her stomach and it started dripping along Maduvu's claws. The girl struggled for a moment…and then she went limp. "Stop!" yelled Livewire, sparks flying out of her body every time she moved until they grew too big and too wild for her to control them. Livewire released an electric wave that shocked everyone as the girl lost control of her powers.

Aqualad, being the only one able to move, reached for her hand and pulled her in, in an effort to contain her powers. "Skye, calm down," he said tightening his arms around her. He could feel her breathing slow down and the amount of electricity decrease with every breath. Once she was in control, she started sobbing uncontrollably, unable to look at the body that laid face down on the ground. Miss Martian and Rocket were the first ones to regain consciousness, their heads felt heavy but the first thing they did was rush to Nightshade's body. Rocket checked for a pulse, but found nothing more than oozing blood coming out of her wounds. Soon after, Superboy, Zatanna and Artemis woke up and joined Rocket next to Nightshade while Miss Martian comforted Skye.

"Tell me she's going to be okay," whispered Zatanna. While they looked, the team heard a splatter sound followed by a hand that took Nightshade away from Rocket. It was Red Shot who had crawled his way towards the girl leaving his prints in the large puddle of blood that had formed around them.

"It's never been this bad before," he told them pulled her closer to his face. While they talked, Robin and Kid Flash were just regaining consciousness. Robin looked up from the ground, his memories of the last few minutes were a bit fuzzy and confusing, but as soon as his eyes landed on the corpse Red Shot was holding, everything came back to him. Robin clumsily made his way towards the group, his eyes fixated on the girl and his mind was wondering why the wounds weren't healing, but when he was close enough to see them, he realized just how deep they actually were. "Stay the hell away!" Yelled Red Shot, kicking Robin away from Nightshade.

"Lance!" said Artemis.

"This is all your fucking fault!" He kept yelling ignoring the archer. Robin knew he was right, if only he hadn't used those bombs, Nightshade wouldn't have come out of the cover. She wouldn't have been stabbed through the chest like that…what the hell was he thinking? "What were you trying to do? Their fucking job?!" The others joined the group, Nightshade's bloody face was next to Red Shot's, his trembling hands held the girl trying to cover the two gaping holes the claws had left in her body. Red Shot's hysterical yelling stopped when he felt a weak, trembling grip grab his shirt and slowly make its way up to his face before giving him a gentle slap. The group looked down to see Nightshade looking back at them, her wounds were still open, but the blood had stopped coming out.

"Nightshade!" Yelled Rocket, falling down to her knees and grabbing the girl's bloody hand. "Holly shit, I thought I would never get to yell at you again," she said.

"Well…It takes more…. than that to kill me," She answered before releasing a painful groan. Hearing the sound of her voice, Skye rushed towards her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Welcome back," said Superboy.

"I hope you're happy, you scared the shit out of us," said Artemis, letting out a sigh of relief she didn't know she was holding, though the image of Nightshade being stabbed was one that would stick with her for a while.

"Aw, you do care," she joked. The girl sat up with Red Shots's help and coughed up blood that scared them all over again. The cough was followed by the girl vomiting blood on the ground next to Red Shot, and it didn't help their nerves that they could still see through her torso. "Don't worry, it happens," she assured them. Her eyes landed on Robin whose gaze remained glued to the floor. The girl waited a while, she crawled her way towards Robin and stared at him until her lifted his gaze.

"I—I'm sorry," he said trying not to look at the holes.

"Not your fault," she said and got up from the ground, the wounds had completely healed and the only thing that remained was her exposed skin and her ripped suit. Robin flinched when the girl walked by, and stopped right next to the two assassins that had yet to wake up.

"We're taking them in," said Aqualad. The girl nodded and looked back at them.

"Yeah…. right. You're taking them in," she said as abruptly as she pulled out her sword, pressed the button on the back and ran the blade through Maduvu. She pulled it out and ran it through Hook's throat just as he was waking up. The sound he made when the blade cut through his throat, resembled that of a broken exhaust. The team didn't even try to move, they weren't expecting her to do something like that, and all they could see in that moment, was pure coldness. The girl put the bloody blade away without even bothering to wipe it away.

"Nightshade?" Asked Miss Martian

"That's two of them. Just five more to go." She answered. "In the meantime, stay away from me," she said and her and the siblings left the room.

"I want to believe she said that out of concern," said Kid Flash before leaning down and taking one of the claws from Maduvu's hand. "This will make a cool souvenir."

Mount Justice- 12:45 A.M-

The team walked into the lounge, they were battered and injured but that didn't keep Batman from glaring at them the minute he saw them. "Where were you? He asked looking down at them.

"We were in here when we heard that Nightshade was being followed by two criminals through New York City. We thought she might need our help," explained Aqualad. "Turns out we were right. There are some assassins…"

"Targeting Nightshade. I know," he said. "What happened to the assassins?" He asked. The team looked at each other with a worried look on their faces.

"Nightshade killed them," answered Robin. Batman let out a sigh and dismissed the team before leaving the cave. The group stayed in silence for a few minutes until Robin broke it. "I'm sorry about what happened," he said.

"Yeah, that was pretty weird. You okay man?" asked Kid Flash putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. Robin looked in the direction Batman had left and nodded. "Good. We need to think about this Nightshade thing," Kid Flash continued letting go of Robin.

"I agree, she may not want our help, but we cannot stand by and do nothing," Aqualad cleared up. The rest of the team agreed with them; though they had some reservation about Nightshade, today's scene had left an impression on them and they didn't want to see something like that again.

Manhattan, New York City- 12:45 A.M-

"Walk slower, you were dead for a few minutes today," said Lance trying to catch up with Jade. Skye had been left behind a long time ago and she was just making her way up to their floor. Jade opened the door to their apartment, took out a laptop and sat in the living room. Lance looked at the girl furiously typing something, he leaned in to look at what she was doing and found that she was looking for odd activity through the traffic cameras in the city. "You'll never find them that way," he told her shutting down the computer.

"You don't know that. They must be hiding somewhere in the city," she said reaching out to take the laptop back, but Lance moved it further away from her. Skye walked into the apartment in that moment, but went straight to her room when she saw Lance motioning her to keep walking.

"Come on Jade, I know you're angry but get some rest," he told her putting the laptop on the table and wrapping his arms around her. The girl looked up and slowly started kissing him, her hands reaching out to his face while his hands moved down to her butt pulling her on top of him. They both pulled away and stared at each other for a while, "I really think you need to go to sleep," he told her.

"I'm not that tired yet," she answered going back to kissing Lance. Her hands moved down to his pants, and the bulge that had formed in them. While Jade took of his pants, his hands made their way the hem of her shirt and he quickly pulled it off, he touched the place where her wounds had been but without thinking about it too much he placed his hands on her chest.

"I think I can fix that," he said and pushed her down on the couch.


	30. Doubt

New York City- June 30- 9:24 A.M-

Jade woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs floating under her nose. At first, she was confused as to why she could smell it in her room, then she remembered she had fallen asleep on the couch the night before. She opened her eyes to see Skye cooking breakfast for the three of them, then as if he had been called, Lance walked out of his room and towards the kitchen to try and steal some bacon from his sister only to get a shock when he got close enough. The girl got up from the couch and lazily made her way towards the kitchen to join the siblings, but before she could reach them, she felt a loud pounding in her head—it was almost as if—almost as if something was trying to break out through her head. No, not something _someone_.

"Jade are you alright?" asked Skye with a concerned look on her face. Jade was wincing in pain as she tried to guess what her friend had just said, the pounding was blocking all the other sounds.

"Yeah…I just," she said, "I'll be right back," she told them and ran off into her room, Jade tripped on her way in, but managed to close the door with her foot. The moment she did that, the pounding stopped and was replaced by an eerily familiar laughter.

" _ **Oh, did you feel that? You're getting weaker Nightshade. All this stress is getting to you,"**_ Nightfall said. Jade tried to get up, but the sharp pain returned.

"What do you want?" she asked.

" _ **I think you know,"**_ Nightfall answered finally allowing Jade to get up. She grabbed onto the edge of her bed and pulled herself up. _**"Why don't you take a little break? I can handle things while you get some well-deserved rest,"**_ the voice said, the covers on the bed were pulled down and the mirror in front of it was turned to face Jade.

"Nice trick…are you ghost now?" asked Jade looking right at the reflection of the red-headed girl that stared back with her red eyes.

" _ **We both now I'm only able to do this because you're losing control,"**_ said Nightfall. _**"It's about time you remember you're only a parasite using MY body,"**_ the girl said. Jade didn't answer, after all she was right, Nightfall was the original Jade Collins. She had only appeared thanks to Felix Faust and his botched magic trick. Just then an alarm went off in the living room and she could hear Lance calling her.

"Yet I'm still the one in control," she reminded her before stepping out of the room. She knew that with that, Nightfall would stay silent for a while, but what she had said still bothered her.

New York City, Central Park- 11:45 A.M-

The call that had interrupted Nightshade's internal conversation was related to a report from a man that was terrorizing people in Central Park. When Nightshade showed up, she found a blue haired man with a knife up to a woman's throat, his eyes were a bit disorientated, so Nightshade tried to stay away from him to keep him from doing something rash, but when his eyes landed on her, he just smiled.

"Oh, come on," she said, "don't do it! Don't do it!" she told him as the knife moved rapidly across her neck. "Aaaand you did it," she said right as she pulled out her sword. The girl ran up to him and tried to thrust her sword into his body, but the little man was faster and managed to move away from her. Nightshade quickly turned around, guessing where he would land and hit him with the back of her sword. She pointed the edge to his throat, but ended up running into his shoulder because Superboy pushed her away from him messing up her aim.

"Didn't I tell you to stay away?" She asked watching the blue-haired guy tear away the sword from his shoulder and then brake it. "Great, there goes another sword. Thanks for that," she said looking up at Superboy who was still holding her by the shoulders.

"Did you really think we would listen to you?" Answered Miss Martian using her powers to lift up a car and use it as shield to block the wave of knives the little man had released.

"Who's this idiot?" asked Superboy.

"Well, I already fought Detonator, Maduvu and Hook, so this asshole must be…"

"Razorburn," answered the blue-haired man. "I'll finished what the others started,"

"Seriously?" Nightshade sighed while taking out her sword. Honestly, she had had enough of those idiots, and then this one showed up. "Did they run out of names or you just decided to go for the stupidest one?"

"Maybe try not to piss off the guy that's trying to kill you," said Superboy. He took Nightshade out of the way of a different wave of knives and put her safely on the side. He jumped at Razorburn and smacked the ground right in front of him creating a wave that sent him all the way to the other side of the street. Razorburn got up from the ground and shook his head as smile started to show up.

"Great, this one is also crazy," said Nightshade getting out a few knives and throwing them at him. He caught them in midair, not caring about the cuts he was getting from grabbing them by the blade and not hilt. Razorburn returned the knives, but before they could hit either one of them, they stopped and fell to the ground. Miss Martian hovered over the other two, ready to pick up the nearest park bench and flung it at him, and she did just that the moment Razorburn gave her an opening. The park bench missed him by just an inch, but during that time, the little man managed to pull out five knives that he threw at Superboy and Nightshade without allowing them any room or time to move out of the way. The knives bounced off Superboy, but they dug themselves into Nightshade's skin causing her to release a painful scream. The scene reminded Miss Martian of the night Maduvu had slashed her torso, and she got lost in rage while the other two on the ground were pulling out the knives from Nightshade's body.

Miss Martian lifted the guy up and brought him closer to her; he fumbled his belt until he managed to grab a knife and throw it at Miss Martian, thought she stopped the knife before it could reach her and returned it, stabbing Razorburn in the other shoulder. After hearing him scream, Miss Martian's eyes started glowing green when she stared directly into his pleading eyes. His yelling caught Nightshade and Superboy's attention, and when they looked up they saw the man screaming at the top of his lungs while the girl melted his mind away.

"Miss Martian!" Yelled Nightshade, but what really snapped her out of it was Superboy yelling her name.

"M'gann!" He said. After hearing his voice, Miss Martian put him down gently on the ground, but his mind was already so far gone that he couldn't even get up from the ground. His twitching body just laid there as the blood and the foam coming out of his mouth mixed in the pavement.

"Wow, I would have expected something like that from me, but I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised," said Nightshade leaning against Miss Martian. The alien girls just stood there looking at what she had done to that man without even giving it a second thought. She turned around to look at Superboy to find some kind of support, but he just glared at her.

"You're right, that's not something anyone would expect from her," he said and walked away from the man. Miss Martian ran after him, but they stopped when they heard a gunshot. Already picturing what they would find, they slowly turned around in time to see Nightshade putting away her gun standing just above the bloody corpse of Razorburn; the girl shrugged and caught up with them as if she hadn't just kill someone.

"What? he was better off dead" she said.

Mount Justice- 3:10 P.M-

Nightshade, Superboy and Miss Martian walked into the cave. As they entered, they walked past Black Canary who refused to acknowledge Nightshade, but the girl still gave her a playful nod.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, irritated that at the girl's gesture.

"None of your business," she answered walking away from the woman who grabbed her by the collar and slammed her body against the wall.

"I will hurt you," said Black Canary, pressing her arm against her throat.

"Oh, I don't doubt it," answered Nightshade, trying not to choke.

"Then why do you keep pissing me off?"

"Dangerous hobbies," she shrugged. Black Canary let out a sigh before letting go of the girl. "I told you before, it wasn't me," she said before walking away with the other two. Black Canary watched her leave, she was really trying not to be angry at her, but every time she saw Nightshade, the rage would take over. The woman clutched her fist and walked in the opposite direction. Miss Martian, Superboy and Nightshade reached the lounge to see Robin and Aqualad arguing loudly in the middle while the rest stood back and watched. "Whoa. Isn't this a love fest?" said Nightshade walking up to Batgirl.

"Robing messed up the mission, they escaped with a rare compound from Wayne Enterprises." Batgirl explained. "What are you doing here?"

"Why does everyone want to know that?" She asked. "I'm looking for Batman. He said he'll be here." Batgirl examined Nightshade, she had heard that the girl had been severely injured and that she was being hunted by some assassins, so she wasn't expecting to see her so…relaxed. In that moment, Kid Flash stepped in between Aqualad and Robin when the latter had gotten too close to Aqualad. Superboy rushed to help Kid Flash and while they held Robin back, Batman walked into the room, his eyes fixated on them.

"Robin—," he started, but Nightshade cut him off.

"Batsy!" said Nightshade, interrupting the man before he could say anything to them, "what took you so long?" she asked, leading him away from the lounge and deeper into the cave.

"I need to talk to Robin," he said swatting her hand away from his arm.

"No you don't, at least not now. Let him cool off for a while, after all who wouldn't be distracted when they think they are being replaced." She told him, though the cowl covered his face, she could tell he was surprised she knew about the new kid he had in his manor. "Let me know when you can talk about those idiots that keep trying to kill me," she said. Batman grabbed her arm and pulled her back before she could walk away.

"The New York senator. Was it you?" He asked her.

"No. I mean not _me_ , but maybe _her_ ," she answered. "Still looking into it," she told him and took the chance to bolt out of the place.

Batgirl watched everything from behind the kitchen counter, she saw Nightshade leaving in a rush, she seemed completely out of it, her skin had grown pale and her fists were clenched. Something must have happened during that conversation with Batman, but even when talking back to the masked vigilante, she had never seen Nightshade looking like that. Her attention was then drawn to Miss Martian and Superboy who were sneaking off to have a fight of their own in another room, so now she was just staring at the others that were trying to calm Robin down until he decided to leave the cave in a fit.

After feeling all eyes on him, Robin simply stormed out of the cave ignoring Kid Flash who was calling after him. He made his way towards the Wayne manor looking forward to locking himself up in his room, or maybe do some training to clear his mind, anything to help him off his bad mood.

"Welcome back Master Richard," Alfred greeted him as soon as he saw him walk through the front door. Dick who had his uniform under sweatpants and a hoodie had removed his mask before walking into the manor. He greeted Alfred with a tired smile that faded as soon as he heard a loud bang coming from downstairs; both he and Alfred rushed to the Batcave where they found Batman with his cowl off looking at a black-haired boy that was in the middle of a training session. "Master Jason has been training hard these last few days," said Alfred looking down at the scene from the top of the stairs. Great, now even Alfred was getting chummy with the new kid, thought Dick as he made his way down the stairs.

"You can do better than that Jason, I know you can," said Bruce, not turning around to look at Dick. The teenager looked at the screen where the time was being recorded, he had just gotten here, and he had already broken his record, the one he worked so hard to get. Though that did bother him, it didn't sting as much as the fact that when he had made it that far, all Bruce had said was 'good job, leave it at that'. Bruce finally stopped to acknowledge Dick, but he did so with a cold scowl on his face. "What happened today?" he asked.

"I messed up," answered Dick without giving any excuse. "It won't happen again."

"This is already the second time, and the first one almost got Nightshade killed," said Bruce heading over to the computer.

"Almost," he answered.

"Dick, this is people's lives you're dealing with. Every time you mess up, someone can get injured or killed!" Bruce raised his voice at him, making Jason stop and listen to their conversation.

"I know that. It won't happen again," he argued once again.

"Knowing you it probably will," the kid interrupted. Well kid was not the right word, after all, he was only a couple of years younger than Dick.

"Jason not now," that was all Bruce had to say for Alfred to usher him out of the Batcave. "Do some training, it might help you clear your thoughts," he ordered Dick, but he was just so mad that a few hours of training wouldn't be able to fix that.

"It will never be enough for you, will it?!" he yelled getting Bruce's attention, "I will never be good enough for you!" After he didn't say anything, Dick turned around to leave, but Bruce grabbed his arm.

"I don't want you to turn out like me," he answered as if that explained everything.

"Then I have news for you, I don't want to be you. I'm not you." He told him pulling his arm away from Bruce's grip, Dick walked away from the him, grabbed his helmet and bike and headed to Downtown Gotham. He was speeding down the now empty streets when he spotted a man running in the opposite direction with a purse clutched tightly in his arms while a woman screamed for help. Robin turned the bike around and followed the guy into an alley where he parked his bike blocking his path.

"Yeah, Purple is definitely not your color," he said before grabbing the guys head and smashing it against the brick wall of one of the buildings.

"So—sorry man. Here, take it back to that lady," said the man, his trembling hands handing him the purse.

"I can do that later," he said right before punching him in the face time after time. His thoughts had cleared up, and all he could think about was where he was going to land the next punch.

"You don't have to kill him," Robin heard a voice coming from behind him. He turned around to see Batgirl standing behind him, the thief took the chance and ran out of the alley hoping over Robin's bike. "What the hell was that?" She asked keeping her eyes on the bloody hands of the Boy Wonder.

"Not now Batgirl," he said hiding his hands behind his back. He felt more relaxed now, but what the hell was he doing? Had he really beat him up that badly?

"Are you alright? Is there anything you want to talk about?" She asked, concern pouring out of her every word. The girl reached out to grab his arm, she placed her hand gently over his shoulder and Robin let it remain there for a few seconds before shoving it away.

"I don't want to keep being Robin," he confessed with a loud sigh, "but I don't know what else I can be. What if I'm not good enough to be anything else; I thought I was, but with everything that's been going on and now Bruce brought in a new kid and I—I," he kept going. Batgirl placed her hand once again over his shoulder and pulled him in for a warm hug, one that only she knew how to give.

"Think about taking some time off, I'll be here until you sort everything out," she told him, not planning on letting go anytime soon. Robin returned the hug and felt the stress melt away from his body before pulling away from her and giving her a half smile.

"I needed that. Thank you, Babs," he told her getting on his bike. "I think I'll drive around some more before going back to the manor," he said. Bargirl nodded and waited for him to drive off before leaving the alley herself; she used her grappling hook to get to the top of the adjacent building where she found Batman looking down in the direction Robin had left.

"Not going to say anything?" Asked Batman.

"Can I really say anything you don't already know?" she asked looking directly at the man that had his large back turned to her. "Didn't think so," she said taking his silence as an answer.


	31. Old Acquaintance

Someone asked in the comments about Nightshade and Robin's age difference, since I've mentioned before that her birthday is in April, she is 16 by know. According to the comic book that tied into the show, Robin's birthday is in December, so in this story he is still 15 making him just 7 months younger than her. Thank you very much for the encouraging comments and questions, I look forward to them and I hope you like the story so far!

Shanghai- July 12- 9:55 P.M (CST)-

"This is an extremely dangerous mission, but if a Justice League member is seen there it could spark international conflict," Batman informed them. The team was on Miss Martian's ship being briefed on the mission they were assigned. "The plans for the satellite the Light was after were transferred to a facility in Shanghai and it's currently being worked on by a team of S.T.A.R Labs scientists," he explained.

"The same plans Nightshade and I guarded a year ago?" Asked Aqualad. "Why would you move them?"

"The blueprints are harder to locate if they are being constantly moved. The problem is that the New York senator that was recently murdered managed to leak some information to The Light. We think they will try to take those blueprints now that they are in Shanghai. Your mission is to keep that from happening until we can arrange another transfer tomorrow," he finished explaining just as they were arriving at the facility. "Keep me informed." Miss Martian directed the ship towards the empty spot behind the building, the plan was to keep it there camouflaged so no one could see it, but as they got closer, the hangar doors opened.

"Do they know we're here?" she asked looking at Aqualad who looked just as confused as the rest of the team. Miss Martian cautiously entered the hangar and landed right in the middle; they were about to descend when one of the guards came rushing into the room.

"What the hell?" He said out loud, "who opened the hangar door?" The guard hadn't detected the presence of the ship or its occupants yet, so he walked over to the switch and pressed the button to close the hangar door. As he walked away from the ship, the team saw Nightshade stepping out of the shadows and Knocking him out with a swift hand movement. The name really did suit her. Once they made sure there was no one else in the room with them, the team got out of the ship, the girl was already waiting for them, holding two uniforms in her hand.

"What are you doing here?" Asked Artemis. Nightshade handed her one of the uniforms and the other one to Aqualad.

"Nothing interesting had been happening, so when Batman asked I couldn't say no," she answered. "Get changed, you're our way into the vault," she told them.

"You mean there were no assassins coming after you? What happened? They got bored?" asked Rocket, placing her arm on the girl's head and leaning completely on her. "Oh wait, don't tell me you killed them?" she asked moving away from Nightshade.

"I didn't. They stopped showing up," she answered. Aqualad and Artemis came out wearing the uniforms they had been given. They had to wait a while because the uniforms were still warm, which meant that she had gotten them fairly recently.

"Babe, can you keep that…. you know for later?" asked Kid Flash as soon as his eyes landed on his girlfriend to which she responded with a flirty smile.

"So not the time for that," said Zatanna moving away from the two of them.

"So, you have a plan?" asked Superboy seeing as the girl had gotten in and prepared the uniforms for them.

"Not in the slightest. I just thought we could get in that way…but that's as far as it goes," she told them and turned to look at Aqualad, "but you look like you have one," she said. They focused their attention on Aqualad who had just finished adjusting the collar of his uniform.

"Now that we have a way in, we should use it as much as we can. The blueprints are supposed to be on the eight floor of this building inside one of the security vaults, we have to get in and make sure that no one else can get close to those blueprints," he told them. "We'll do this together… as a team," he said directing his gaze at Robin. Artemis used the access card hanging from the pocket of her shirt and the door opened before them to reveal a group of guards waiting on the other side.

"Something wrong?" she asked, the guards looked behind her, but saw nothing aside from the empty hangar.

"No, just checking," one of them said and started walking away with the rest only to be stopped by Kid Flash who swiftly knocked them out and pulled them back into the hangar. They checked their identification cards to see if any of them had a higher clearance, but all of them were merely low-level guards. Once they were done, Superboy helped Nightshade hide them with the other guards so they wouldn't be seen if anyone thought of checking down at the hangar again. With that, and only after Robin hacked the cameras to show the same footage over and over again, they made their way out into the hall. Miss Martian had stablished a psychic link between all of them but Nightshade because Nightfall kept causing an interference, so they were forced to use the communicator with her. Aqualad went ahead to make sure there were no guards coming their way and the strategy work until the group heard someone approaching them, so Artemis shoved them all into the closest room without checking whether it had someone inside or not.

Once inside the room that had luckily been empty, they waited by the door until Artemis opened the door once again to shove in two unconscious men. The team kept walking through the halls up to the elevator that would lead them to the eight floor, but when they tried to press the button a voice came out of the speaker.

" _Unable to complete request, invalid clearance,"_ it said.

"Now what?" Asked Kid Flash.

"Can't Miss Martian or Zatanna get us up there?" asked Artemis looking at the two girls.

"Not without alerting the guards," answered Zatanna. They turned to look at Robin, but he shook his head in response.

"Already tried to overdrive the command, but it doesn't seem to work," he answered. Nightshade placed a hand over her ear and started talking into the comm.

" ** _Lance, can you do it?"_** she asked, but after nothing happened for a while, the team just assumed he had given the same answer as Robin. "We're gonna have to take it up to fourth floor where the clearance of this IDs ends," she said pressing the button for the fourth floor.

"How much of our conversations can Lance hear?" asked Robin, and suddenly he heard a crackling noise coming from his communicator.

" ** _All of it Bird Boy,"_** said the familiar voice on the other side of the line. **_"Be careful when you get off, there will be a lot of company,"_** he told them and just like he had predicted, the elevator doors opened to reveal a busy hall full of unsuspecting guards. The group had sneaked away through the ceiling of the elevator leaving Artemis and Aqualad alone, which is why they could step into the hall without raising any red flags.

"What are you doing up here?" asked one of them.

"They told us to make our way up here," answered Aqualad. The guard just looked at them up and down before going back to the paper he was looking at. Aqualad and Artemis made their way towards the right looking at each and every one o their IDs to find one that could take them higher. The team remained on top of the elevator in silence for a few minutes until Kid Flash broke it.

"I've been meaning to ask, if you hate flying that much, how did you get here?" Asked Zatanna.

"She doesn't hate it, she's afraid of it," Kid Flash reminded everyone.

"I'm not…it's just that I would rather stay on the ground," she argued. "And I take a bunch of sleeping pills before every flight so I wake up when we land," she answered Kid Flash's question and then two guards entered and pressed the button for the sixth floor. Once the doors were closed, Robin jumped down and took them both out before the doors opened; he then handed one of the ID cards to Zatanna and kept the other one.

" ** _This floor is clear, but we have another problem,"_** said Lance, **_"the League of Assassins is here. That would actually explain why they are on such high alert."_** When Lance finished talking, they heard a loud crashing sound coming from one of the right side of the hall before seeing one of the assassins ran straight past without noticing them.

"They haven't seen us, so that gives us an advantage," said Zatanna.

"Let's keep it that way," Nightshade insisted running off with the others to the left side. Miss Martian informed Aqualad and Artemis that they were on the sixth floor and they would meet them on the eight. The group reached the stairs only to find that they also needed and access card, but luckily for them, the cards of the men that had gotten on the elevator allowed them to make their way to the seventh floor. While they discussed what they would do next, Robin noticed that one of the assassins had been following them, so he left the group to chase after the woman that had fled as soon as he had spotted her. "Robin, your access card," asked Nightshade before she and everyone else noticed that he was gone.

"Oh, shit," said Kid Flash, he was ready to go find him when Nightshade opened the door. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Adjusting the plan, we are going," she said. "He'll catch up later," she told him holding the door open for them to go through. They reluctantly followed leaving Robin behind.

The Boy Wonder chased after the assassin while she ran deeper into the building only to stop inside one of the labs on the back of the building. When she stopped, more assassins showed up in the room and Robin found himself surrounded by them. He was right, it was a trap and he had walked right into it, or more like run right into it. The assassins started attacking him with their swords leaving him to dodge and avoid their blade while he looked for something he could use to block their hits; he first grabbed one of the trash cans and threw it at one of the assassins, but the woman just dodged it and tried to stab him only to end up hitting the ground.

While Robin fought the assassins, Artemis and Aqualad had finally found their target, one of the scientists that had remained behind to work overtime on one of her projects. **_"She has just requested an escort to take her to her car,"_** said Lance.

The two of them approached her office and Artemis walked inside. "Dr. Sandsmark, you needed an escort?" she asked. Helena Sandsmark lifted her head from the computer screen to see Artemis standing in front of her, with Aqualad posed right next to the door.

"That was fast. Just let me save my progress before leaving," she told Artemis. The woman then turned everything off and grabbed her things before following Artemis and Aqualad to the elevator. They took her to the first floor and out of the door right up to her car and watched her leave before coming back into the building.

"You got it?" asked Aqualad.

"Oh yeah," she answered flashing the ID card in front of him. The two of them got back on the elevator and pressed the button up to the seventh floor where the other were still trying to find their way up after beating up a lot of security guards that had spotted them.

"Wasn't that fun?" asked Nightshade dusting off her hands after putting the last one of the guards on top of the unconscious body pile they had formed in one of the room. Aqualad and Artemis found them in that room and were just about to say something when they heard a loud explosion coming from the floor right below them.

"Where's Robin?" Aqualad asked a facepalming Nightshade, but he already knew the answer.

Robin had to throw a bomb at the assassins before they could hurt him even more than they already had, but now he had alerted the whole building meaning they only had a short time to secure the plans before the assassins could get to them. He had messed up again, and he knew it. As one of the assassins stood over him, he thought about how wrong his plan had gone, but he braced himself for the blow that was ultimately interrupted by Nightshade who had placed a bullet on the side of his attacker's head before she could strike him. He turned to see her making her way towards him, her gun still in her right hand and an angry look on her face.

"Get yourself together, next time I won't be there to save your sorry ass," she told him as she walked past him leaving the rest of the assassins to Superboy and Rocket who had broken through the roof along with Nightshade to aid him. Once the room was clear, the three of them ran up to the eight floor where the rest of the team was, Aqualad had a serious look on his face as he and the others fought their way through the assassins and it got worse when he spotted Robin coming with Rocket and Superboy. The team cleared the hall just enough to allow them to run towards the room where the blueprints were being kept, and just as they turned the corner, a tall figure landed in front of them blocking their path. Nightshade stared with a smile on her face, it wasn't a happy smile, it was more like a mocking, sarcastic smile. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me," she said walking up to the woman she recognized as Lady Shiva.

"Nightshade," she said taking out her sword, "It's been a while,"

"Not long enough. Guys, you should go ahead. I think I need some time to catch up with an old friend," she said cracking her knuckles. A living legend, thought Nightshade as she examined Shiva, she hadn't changed at all since the last time they met, and that wasn't a good thing because the last time Nightshade had seen Shiva, the then teenager was falling out a window. Of course, it was probably the first and last time it happened because after that, Shiva built a reputation as one of the deadliest assassins Ra's al Ghul had.

"You know most people start running when they see me," she said stopping in front of Nightshade, completely calmed and composed.

"Most people don't see you," she said, okay a few things had changed, for starters Shiva was taller than her and had traded in the one-piece suit for a pair of pants, a shirt and a long trench coat. Shiva laughed at the remark and grabbed Nightshade by the collar as the team ran past them. Shiva tried to go after them, but Nightshade stopped her by sticking her sword on the wall, right in front of her face. Angered at the smug look on her face, Shiva threw Nightshade across the hall. "Why the sudden aggressiveness?" she asked running towards Lady Shiva to try and kick her on the side. The woman returned the kick by cutting her on the side with her sword, but the wound healed almost instantly.

"It's not sudden," she answered and threw a knife at the girl who dodged before running forward to attack Shiva. This had happened once before, Nightshade thought. Of course, it was not part of her memories, but one of the few Nightfall had shared with her. It was right after Nightfall had gotten her powers from the experiments; Shiva was brought in to test what she had learned from Ra's al Ghul. She was a kid, not much older than Nightshade, about five years or so. They were told to fight, and they did. Shiva defeated Nightshade with ease and in just a few minutes, after all the girl had been training for just a year while Shiva had four years of training under her belt. The girls met a few more times after and with every fight it was harder for Shiva to defeat Nightshade, but she eventually did it every time.

Nightshade was brought back to the present by a sharp pain that ran through her whole body after Lady Shiva had pierced her chest with the heel of her boots. The girl coughed up a little bit of blood, but then grabbed her leg and pushed her back and kicked her into the wall. The last time they had seen each other had been just like this, it was just after Nightfall had made the decision to leave the Light. It was a big fight with Lex Luthor and Ra's al Ghul watching, they even rented an old building and the fight took place on the third floor.

Seeing as it would have been their last fight, Nightfall had gotten in fighting position and was waiting for Shiva to attack, when she did, Nightfall defended herself with all she had. Shiva threw a high kick and Nightshade dodged it and returned it with a punch to the face that was avoided by Shiva. Even though weapons were not allowed, she would scratch Nightfall to cause some more damage, prolonging the fight a little longer than the previous ones. After a while, both girls were exhausted and wounded, but Shiva started to get frustrated watching Nightshade's wounds closing.

"That little trick is not going to save you this time," said Shiva taking out her sword. Nightshade chuckled while reaching down for the black stick hanging on her hip. Shiva got angrier and raised her sword against her, Nightshade took out hers and pushed her back.

"I knew you were still mad about that," she said, after blocking the oncoming hit.

"You ruined my chance to join the League sooner," Lady Shiva explained. "I was serious about that fight, yet you didn't even care," she said while pulling back her sword and hitting the girl on the side creating a large cut.

"Yet I beat you," said Nightshade looking right into her eyes. That night, Shiva had taken out a knife, even though they were not allowed any weapons, and she charged at Nightfall. Seeing this, the girl moved out of the way so that Shiva was now facing the large window that was behind Nightfall. Nightfall stared at her with her deep brown eyes, and when Shiva charged at her again, blinded by rage, she missed the girl by an inch and ended up going through the window. She didn't fall, she held tightly onto the edge even though the broken glass was making its way through her skin. Nightfall walked up to her, Shiva stared at her and then looked down at the ground. It was a big fall from there, but she didn't look worried, those fights always ended right before someone would get seriously hurt. That changed when she noticed the coldness that had grown in Nightfall's face before she kicked Shiva across the face and watched her fall to the ground. "Well if you look at it objectively, it was your fault," said Nightshade with a smirk on her face.

"You kicked me out, you wanted to see me die," she reminded the girl that had blocked her next hit. Shiva kicked her in the stomach and pushed back so she could make some distance between them, and just as Nightshade stumbled back, she ran her sword through the girl's chest. The sword went through her body and came out the other side. Nightshade fell to her knees as blood came out, she had forgotten how good Shiva had gotten since their last encounter, an assassin without mercy.

"So no chance of talking this out, huh?" she said, before the woman pulled out the sword from her chest. Nightshade looked up from the ground while she waited for the wound to close and noticed the sinister look on Shiva's face. "Good. Cause I could go on all night," said Nightshade, giving her a smirk after her wound closed.

Lady Shiva charged at her once again, this time instead of using her sword she kicked her on the side and Nightshade rolled away to the other side of room. "You don't even deserve my time, you are just a fucking coward!" she said kicking her again before she could get up. Nightshade grabbed her foot before another kick could come in and pushed her out of the way, and she got up holding her stomach.

"Yeah, I probably am," she said wincing in pain and kicking Shiva in the face. Shiva didn't even blink, instead she threw a punch at her and followed it by releasing a wave of knives that cut through Nightshade's suit. She had used that move before, hell she had learned that move from Shiva, and yet she couldn't avoid it. The girl moved away from another blow and elbowed Shiva in the back of the head when she passed her by, she then took out the black stick, pressed the button to take out the blade and directed it towards Shiva's leg and stuck it in. She pressed the button once again tot retrieve the sword causing the woman even more pain that she refused to show. "After all, I'm still just running away from all of you."

The rest of the team had reached the next hallway just to find that there were more assassins waiting for them, and among them stood Ra's al Ghul just looking at them with a piercing glare. The team got ready for the attack as the assassins ran towards them. Superboy fend them off by throwing them against the wall as soon as they got close to him, the ones that sneaked past him where attacked by Rocket and Miss Martian who led with them in different ways, the Martian would lift them up and then slam their bodies against the ground while Rocket would blast them with her powers. Still, a large number of assassins got through meaning Aqualad, Artemis and Zatanna had to take them on; the archer pierced their shoulders with arrows, trying not to miss even though they moved pretty fast, Aqualad resorted to hand on hand combat with a group of assassins while Zatanna tried to slow the other down with spells.

"Man, Nightshade is so dead," said Kid Flash after he grabbed Robin and ran with him to the front to aid Superboy. "There's no way she's going to win, Lady Shiva is ruthless," he said putting him down. Robin didn't say anything, there was no way to deny that Shiva was one of the best assassins around, but Nightshade didn't seem to be far behind. While the team fought the assassins, he looked around for Ra's al Ghul and when he couldn't find him, he thought that he was surely already with the blueprints. Robin sneaked away from them and towards the room, but it was empty except for the blueprints that laid inside an intact glass case.

"So it's this room," said Ra's al Ghul after he had followed Robin into the room. Shit, he thought turning around to see the old man standing behind him. He barely had any time to move before Ra's al Ghul threw a knife at him that scraped his arm leaving behind a cut. "I must thank you for finding it, you definitely saved us some time," he told Robin. Angered, he pulled out a birdarang and threw it at him, but Ra's al Ghul blocked it with the hilt of his sword. A fight broke out between the two of them and Robin was clearly losing, but it wasn't until he found himself cornered that he realized how bad it actually was.

On the other side, Nightshade knelt on the floor right in front of Shiva who was holding onto her sword using it to support herself. Both girls had wounds all over their bodies and they seemed exhausted, none of them was willing to back down. Until Nightshade finally stood up.

"What? You're not going to finish this?" asked Shiva still on the ground. "Kill or be killed was it?"

"I don't need to finish it, I just needed to distract you," she said walking away from her, her sword dragging on the floor behind her until she pressed the button to pull it in. "And it pains me to admit it, but I can't beat you. I'll try again some other time," she said turning the corner to join the rest of the team.

Kid Flash burst through the door along with a group of assassins that had followed him, and grabbed Robin taking him away from Ra's al Ghul.

"What's going on with you?" he asked looking down at his best friend who was all wounded and weak. One of the assassins broke the glass case and pulled out the plans before anyone could do anything to stop her, considering Kid Flash was worried about Robin. The other had finally joined them in the room, but all they could do was defend themselves as more assassins gathered in the room.

"I want to say this was entertaining, but you just failed to amuse me," he said just as a loud explosion blew up the wall behind them revealing a helicopter ready to take Ra's al Ghul and the blueprints away. the moment Ra's al Ghul turned his back on the team, he felt a gush of wind, and extended his hand just in time to catch one of Nightshade's knives and had the second one intercepted by a beaten up and tired Lady Shiva. The man turned around to look at the girl who was leaning against the doorway of the room. "Ah, I see. This was just the introduction. I'm afraid I have to leave just as this was getting interesting," he said and stepped into the helicopter. The team stayed quiet for a while before Aqualad broke the silence.

"Robin," Aqualad called out to him in his usual calm voice.

"Yeah, I know. I messed up the mission. I'll fix this, all I have to do is find out where Ra's al Ghul took the blueprints," he answered anticipating what was coming.

"How do you plan to do that? Not only did you let Ra's al Ghul run away with the blueprints, but you almost got us and yourself killed by the League of Assassins," Artemis told him getting closer to Robin, but stopping right when the bloody blade of a sword was placed between them. They both turned around to see Nightshade holding her bloodied sword and then pressing the button in the back of the hilt to pull it back in. "Whose blood is that?" Asked Artemis looking at Nightshade who still had some deep wounds and bruises that hadn't quite healed yet.

"We'll talk back in the cave," said Aqualad noticing the state everyone was in.

Mount Justice- July 12- 9:00 P.M (EST)-

The ride back was long and silent, Zatanna and Superboy had taken it upon themselves to help clean up and bandage their wounds, even forcing Nightshade to sit down and have her wounds disinfected before they healed. Once Miss Martian landed the ship and the group stepped out, Robin got ready for what was going to come, but Nightshade grabbed his hand and pulled him towards her bike and handed him a helmet. Before anyone had time to protest, she took him away from the cave leaving a dumbfounded team behind.

"You knew?" He asked over the sound of the motorcycle engine, but Nightshade didn't say anything, the answer was obvious. She kept driving through the highway until she spotted some wooded area where she swerved into only to stop right in front of a pond. They took of their helmets and set them on top of the motorcycle to admire the beautiful pond that seemed to sparkle when the light of the moonlight hit it just right. "What is this place?" He asked walking towards the water.

"I found it a few years ago. It's nice isn't it?" she asked watching him from the distance. "Helps you relax," she told him, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back on the bike. Robin knew what she was trying to do, she had stopped the team from scolding him back in Shanghai and then she had taken him away once they reached the cave to give him a chance to think things through, he just couldn't understand something.

"Why?" He asked.

"I know how it feels like. To be confused and alone, not being able to feel like yourself," she said looking down at her hand, a tiny flame forming on her finger, but she extinguished it as soon as she felt his gaze on her and made her way towards the Boy Wonder. "What's on your mind, Blunder Boy?" she asked. Robin removed his mask and stared at his reflection on the pond; honestly, he didn't know what he was seeing anymore, who he was seeing.

"I don't want to be like Bruce," he said, "but I don't know anything else I can be. I've always been Robin," he continued talking, more to himself than to Nightshade who had sat down next to him, quietly listening to everything he wanted to say. Everything he had bottled up this past few months came pouring out, he had even started throwing rocks into the pond without noticing, he would lean down, grab a rock and throw it in staying quiet until the rock sank and then resuming his rant. Once he was done, he threw himself on the grass next to Nightshade and let out a deep sigh. "Thank you for listening," he told her. Nightshade, who had take off her mask as well, gave him a warm smile that caught him completely off guard.

"Anytime, Wonder Brat," she told him. Robin sat up and put his head between his palms for a while, he was processing all the information that had just come out of his mouth. "So, what are you going to do?" she asked him. Robin looked up to meet the pair of dark brown eyes that stared at him intently, he was going to answer, he really meant to answer her question, but instead he ended up drawing his face closer to her only to have her push him away before he could kiss her.

"Sorry," he said running a hand through his black hair. "I think I'm going to take some time off. From everything, including the team," he told her, looking directly at the pond, trying to hide his embarrassment.

"I think you need one," Nightshade answered him acting as if nothing had happened. Dammit, he thought looking away from the pond and towards the girl, he had screwed up again. "It's getting late, we should head back," she said.

The moment Nightshade got up from the ground, he did the same and followed her to the bike, when he saw her getting closer, he felt the sudden urge to finish what he had started, and he grabbed her hand and pulled her back to him. His lips touched hers and he moved his hand to her waist, pulling her closer as if he didn't want to let go of her. This time, Nightshade sunk into the kiss, it was different from the first time she had kissed him, it was longer, deeper, more passionate. She felt his cold, gloved hands make their way to her lower back. In that moment, Lance's face popped up in her mind and again she pulled away from him.

"I get that you're upset, but don't use me as a way to relief stress," she said walking back to her bike. "Shit. I'm with Lance. Surprisingly, I really like him, and I don't want to screw things up," she told him before putting her helmet on.

"I wasn't doing that," he murmured watching her leave him behind.


	32. Ultimatum

I'll clear some things up in my story since someone keeps commenting about this. My story is set in the gap between season one and season two, it started shortly after the end of the first season, which was set at the end of 2010, and is currently in the year 2012. This makes all the characters two years older meaning Aqualad, Miss Martian and Superboy are now 18, Rocket, Artemis and Kid Flash are 17, Zatanna is 16 and Dick is 15. I really hope this clears things up and as you've probably noticed, I always try to put the date on my stories when though I never really put the year until it changes in the story. Thank you all for reading!

Wayne Manor- July 22- 1:23 A.M-

Richard Grayson sat in front of the computer in the Batcave, he was using it to try and track down the location o the blueprints that had been stolen a week ago in Shanghai; so far, he had hit multiple dead ends. While continuing his search, he heard the door opening and looked up the stairs to see Alfred standing on top, for a moment he had thought Bruce and Jason were back from the mission he had chosen to skip, but after seeing the slender man descending the stairs with a tray he had relaxed every muscle in his body that had tensed up. Alfred placed the tray next to him and lifted the lid to reveal some cookies and a warm cup of tea.

"Thanks, but I'm not five, Alfred," he told him, grabbing only the cup of tea that he was hoping was black tea to keep him going a little longer. No, it was chamomile. Dick placed the cup on the side and went back to investigating another location.

"Master Dick, you've been awake for two days straight and you've barely eaten anything, I believe it's time you take a break. You have plenty of time to track down those blueprints," he told him, a concerned tone plagued his voice.

"I don't think I do," he said just as they heard the Batmobile entering the Batcave. Dick let out a loud sigh that was followed by the sound of two sets of footsteps walking up to the computer.

"You're still going at it, jerk face?" Asked Jason, Dick turned around to look at him, he was wearing a variation of his own Robin suit which made him cringe a little.

"Yeah," he answered going back to the screen.

"Dick, we'll have the Justice League look into it. You should go to bed now," Bruce told him pulling down his cowl. He laid a hand on his shoulder, "I can—." Dick cut him off by shoving his hand away from his shoulder and abruptly getting up from the chair.

"Why? You think I can't find it?" he asked.

"Of course you can, but you've been trying for two days. Taking a break will help you focus."

"I'll never be good enough for you, will I?" Dick said, feeling insulted.

"I never said that," Bruce raised his voice slightly, something Alfred interpreted as a que to leave and take Jason with him.

"You know, I've been thinking about this for a while. I need to find my own thing, I obviously can't be Robin anymore, but I won't be able to find out what I need with you," Dick said after the two of them had calmed down a bit. "I'm not you and I don't want to be you." He repeated just as the computer sent out a notification.

Mount Justice- July 23- 12:45 A.M-

The team, Nightshade and Batgirl were called to the cave early in the morning. They all showed up rather quickly expecting to see Batman with a new mission for them, but when everyone had finally gathered in the mission room, they only one that showed up was Robin. It had been a week since the incident in Shanghai he had stopped showing up to hang out in the cave and would only show up for missions, so it was a surprise to see him there again.

"This better be important, I could be home sleeping," said Artemis.

"I'm leaving the team," said Robin.

"Oh, it is," she corrected staring in shock at the teenager that stood in front of them. Robin's eyes panned the group trying to read their expressions. Kid Flash was just as shocked as his girlfriend, Rocket was unable to hide her mild surprise while Zatanna and Miss Martian seemed to be very upset. With Superboy and Aqualad it was harder to tell what they were thinking and of course Nightshade and Batgirl were not surprised at all, though Batgirl was more concerned than Nightshade who was just standing in the back with a black bag on the ground next to her.

"If this decision comes from the incidents that occurred last week, I assure you no one thinks you should be out of the team," said Aqualad and Robin could finally identify how he was feeling, guilty. Robin shook his head.

"Then what is it, man?" Asked Kid Flash.

"I just need some time to think things over, and I can't do that if I stay here," he told them. "Though I do have one last mission for us. I found out where they are keeping the blueprints they stole from Shanghai," he told them, but it was just as if they had decided to ignore the last thing he had said, and an argument broke out among the team that Nightshade and Batgirl preferred to watch from the sidelines, thought the concern in Batgirl's face kept growing with every passing minute.

"You're not going to try anything?" She asked turning to look at the other girl that leaned against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest.

'Why? It's his problem, not ours. Stay out of it," she answered and leaned down to grab her bag from the floor.

"Then what was that thing you did last week?" She asked. The team had filled her in on what had happened after the mission in Shanghai, Batgirl thought it was odd for Nightshade to do something like that for another human being, but maybe she wasn't as bad as she thought. Nightshade watched her silently for a moment and then shrugged as if that answered her question.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she told her. "Have fun with the mission." No, she really was as bad as she thought, Batgirl corrected herself.

"You're not coming?" she asked yelling after her.

"Got something to take care of," she answered patting the bag before disappearing into the hallway. As Nightshade walked away, Robin followed her with his eyes until she was no longer visible from where he was standing, her leaving meant that he wouldn't be seeing her again, at least for some time. He really wanted to apologize though.

"Guys," he called out, but it seemed like they weren't listening, "guys. Guys!" they finally turned around to look at him, "We can do this later, but we only have a few hours before people get into work at Lexcorp."

"Right…wait what?" asked Kid Flash. "Did you just say Lexcorp?" the team started following Robin towards Miss Martians ship, completely ignoring Kid Flash's concern. "Seriously? No one's going to say anything? Lexcorp! Anybody?" he kept pestering the team with little success.

Lexcorp, Metropolis- 2:00 A.M-

The team infiltrated into the Lexcorp building, Robin had bypassed the security codes and shifted the security guards' routes allowing them to get into the building with ease. The team decided to spit up and examine different areas of the building since they didn't know exactly where they were keeping the blueprints. Artemis, Miss Martian and Aqualad checked the offices on the first floors, Rocket, Superboy and Batgirl took the floors in the middle and Robin, Kid Flash and Zatanna went with the upper floors.

After the team had split, Aqualad, Miss Martian and Artemis remained on the ground floor, there wasn't any underground facilities which they found odd since it was Luthor the one they were talking about. They inspected every single office, every corner and opened every single door, but found nothing in the ground floor, so they moved onto the second level, but had no luck either.

"Are we sure this is where they took it?" asked Artemis closing the last door from that floor behind her. "how did Robin even get that information?" she questioned, but neither Miss Martian nor Aqualad knew the answer.

"For now, let us trust him with this," said Aqualad as the group moved on to the next floor.

In charge of the seventh to the thirteenth floor were Superboy, Rocket, and Batgirl who were now in the tenth floor and they still hadn't found anything. The group were starting to wonder the same thing as they made their way through, but It wasn't until they found a locked door that they started to believe Robin.

"It's locked. What do we do now?" asked Rocket.

"It won't be for long," said Superboy as he ran into the door knocking it over. The room looked like a normal office, but once they started going through the files and cabinets, they understood why it was locked. The office had countless files on Camille Brooks, Lance and Skye Davis, the experiments they performed on them and their progress up until they ran away. All of those files were neatly organized, but they couldn't find anything on Nightshade, Nightfall or even Jade Collins.

"Found one!" yelled Batgirl. They hadn't said anything, but they were all looking for at least one, a little bit of information that could help them unravel the mystery around the girl, so when Batgirl found something, the other two ran over to take a look. "Date of birth, April 20th, 1996. No metahuman gene detected... Experiment successful despite 20% chance of survival," Batgirl read the important bits out loud, but other than that, there was no background information, there was nothing. The group abandoned any hope of finding more and after making sure the blueprints weren't there, they left the room and made their way up.

Meanwhile, Zatanna, Kid Flash and Robin were already on the eighteenth floor, two more and they would have already searched the whole building. After not finding anything, Robin was getting desperate, he wasn't wrong, he couldn't be wrong about this. Kid Flash laid a hand on his shoulder, calming him down a little. The three of them made their way up to the nineteenth floor only to find it completely sealed off. They looked around the room until Zatanna found an air vent.

"Easy last mission, huh?" asked Kid Flash, Robin smiled and chuckled as they kept making their way through the air vent of the building.

"Let's hope you're right," he answered looking out the first vent. The room underneath them looked empty, so Robin kicked it off and landed in the empty room, he tried the door and it opened. "Come down," he called them. The other two joined him down the hallway and they made their way towards the only door that was at the end of the hall. The path they were walking on allowed them to look into the rest of the building through the large windows that went form one end of the hall to the other. They were just about to reach the door when they heard the distinct sound of high heels hitting against the hard marble floors. The three of them turned around in time to dodge Mercy's bullet. Mercy, the woman Nightfall claimed she had killed a year ago, was now shooting at them.

Robin ran up to her, dodging her bullets until he was close enough to land a kick, but the woman just moved out of the way and jumped over the other two placing herself right in front of the door they were trying to get to. "I believe you have bothered Mister Luthor long enough," she told them. Kid Flash ran up to her to try and put her off balance, but the woman started blindly shooting where she thought he would be.

While that was going on, Nightshade's call came through, _**"How's it going?"**_ she asked.

" _ **I thought you said you killed Mercy Graves,"**_ said Robin throwing some smoke pellets to distract Mercy and let them land some hits.

" _ **Nightfall did. Wait, why are you asking?"**_

" _ **We're inside Lexcorp looking for the stolen blueprints,"**_ Robin told her. He heard a loud explosion going off in the back ground on her side and got distracted long enough for Mercy to land a kick that sent him against the window that cracked a little under his weight.

" _ **You are where?!"**_ Nightshade yelled. _**"Are you people stupid?"**_

" _ **See? That's the normal reaction!"**_ said Kid Flash running up behind Mercy and pushing her into Zatanna who created an energy wall so that Mercy would crash against it.

" _ **Relax, we haven't found anything, and it looks like its not here,"**_ said Batgirl just as they all heard a loud crashing sound and saw Zatanna falling down from the nineteenth floor. _**"We'll get back to you,"**_ Batgirl told her when Superboy intercepted the fall and put her safely back on the ground floor. Somewhere in between, Nightshade had stopped answering and the team had stopped listening, because they then saw Mercy jump down to the ground floor and land unharmed. Robin and Kid Flash stayed on top while the others did everything they could to contain Mercy, the two boys pushed the door, but when that didn't work, Robin was forced to plant some bombs near the door so that the explosion would blow them open.

Down on the ground floor, Mercy jumped on top of Superboy and pulled him back to the ground using the strength from her robotic arm. She started beating him up while he was pinned down, but Artemis shot an arrow that hit her synthetic arm, damaging it when the arrow exploded. Even without her arm, Mercy still managed to hit Miss Martian and Aqualad into a wall when the two tried to approach her. Rocket then came down launching her beams at Mercy, only one managed to hit her and it was enough for Zatanna to tie her down with a spell. It didn't last long though, because the moment Robin blew the doors open, Mercy broke out of Zatanna's spell and tried to get to them only to be stopped by Batgirl who landed on top of the woman.

"Where do you think you're going?" She asked moving away and blocking a high kick that was directed at her face.

"Please, this is getting boring," said Mercy trying to land a punch that Batgirl just deflected giving her an opening to hit the woman on the side.

"I think you'll get over it," Batgirl told her while bringing Mercy down to the ground.

Upstairs, Robin and Kid Flash had finally broken into the room that seamed to be Lex Luthor's office, and to their surprise, the man himself was sitting down behind his desk. "I knew you would eventually make it. Too bad Jade couldn't join us, I guess she's too busy shooting down our assassins," he said looking directly at Robin. "You're not here to talk about that though. You're here for this," he said placing the blueprints on top of his desk. Kid Flash walked over to the blueprints, but Robin stopped him noticing the gun that had emerged from the ceiling and was aimed right at them.

They heard an explosion downstairs, but even that wasn't enough to distract them form the situation they were in. Kid Flash knew he could just make a run for it, grab the blueprints and leave before a single bullet could reach him, but that just didn't apply to Robin. "Looks like we've reached a stalemate," Robin told Luthor raising the holographic computer in his wrist. The guns moved ever so slightly, aiming directly at the Boy Wonder.

"No kid, I won," he answered. Luthor was right, there was no way he could hack those guns before they put multiple bullets through his body, in that moment the gun that hung above Luthor started cracking until sparks came out of it and it finally fell on the ground in front of his desk. The three of them turned to their right to look at Livewire who was coming out of a shadow portal that she clearly hadn't open herself.

"Nightfall says hi," as soon as she said that, Luthor looked over at the screen that displayed the security footage of the first floor where Mercy and the rest of the team was. Just as he had thought, Red Shot emerged from another portal and blasted Mercy from behind. After seeing that, sparks came out of his computer and it exploded after being overloaded by Livewire's electricity.

"It's a disappointment she couldn't make it, but I must say I had forgotten about the two of you," he said and got up from his chair. Robin pulled out a couple birdarangs, Livewire put up her charged fists and Kid Flash prepared for a run, but Luthor remained calm watching the three teens getting ready for a battle that would not happen as the wall behind him blew up and waiting for him was a helicopter with Mercy already on it. The woman was beaten up badly, but she still managed to put herself in front of Luthor while he boarded. "I'll make sure to take the appropriate measures next time. Enjoy my parting gift," he told them and as the helicopter flew away, Robin reached over the desk for the blueprints, but the moment he grabbed them, explosions started going off around the building.

"That's our cue to leave," said Kid Flash grabbing Robin and running down to the first floor where the rest of the team was bolting out of the place. Livewire caught up with them a few seconds later and made it out with the others just in time to watch the building crumble. Soon after, sirens could be heard in the distance, so the team decided it would be better if the police and the fire department didn't find them on the scene and got the wrong idea.

"Please tell me you got what you were looking for?" asked Batgirl looking back at Robin who waved the blueprints in the air. "Oh thank god, I though we blew up a building for nothing," she said slumping down in the chair that had appeared inside Miss Martian's ship.

"We didn't do that, Luthor did," said Kid Flash sitting down next to Artemis, letting the girl run her fingers through his hair as they both calmed down.

"Wait, does the fact that the two of you showed up means that we are having a Nightfall problem now?" asked Batgirl, the rest of the team stopped what they were doing and in a panic turned to look at the siblings.

"No. Nightfall took over Jade's body just long enough to take us to Lexcorp. She let Nightshade take care of Detonator and Merlyn," said Livewire right before checking her phone. "Oh, there she is. She says she'll meet us at the cave."

"Did she…kill them?" asked Zatanna.

"They are trying to kill her, I actually encourage it," said Red Shot leaning on the chair his sister was sitting in.

"I was beginning to forget the three of you have no sense of morality whatsoever," said Aqualad.

"Listen here fishboy, where we come from is either kill or be killed. We don't expect you to understand, but don't make us sound like the bad guys here," said Red Shot getting in Aqualad's face. Superboy got in between them, keeping the two of them at a reasonable distance for the remainder of the trip. What followed was an awkward silence that was only broken by Zatanna's curiosity.

"How do Nightfall's portals work? They don't come from magic, is it something like the zeta-tubes? It must be nice traveling like that," she asked looking at Livewire since Red Shot refused to answer any question.

"No, it's horrible. The portal opens to the Shadowlands which is just an empty dark void you walk through until a bright light signals an opening on the other side. Seconds in there feel like hours," Livewire explained after she had taken off her mask, she shuddered just remembering the sounds and creaks she had heard in there.

"Shadowlands?" asked Superboy.

"It's another realm filled with darkness, people like Simon Culp and The Shade get their powers from there. Nightfall mainly uses it for her portals, but to the people that have access to the Shadowlands, it looks completely different to what it looks to us," Red Shot clarified.

Mount Justice- 7:00 A.M-

The team walked out of Miss Martian's ship to be greeted by Nightshade, who to their surprise was wearing casual clothes without her mask, it looked like she had been waiting for some time, because she had managed to make popcorn and was throwing them into her mouth while they descended. A smirk instantly formed on her face when she saw the state they were in, tattered and ripped suits, bruises and even some blood stains covered their bodies.

"What did you do? Fight a truck?" she asked. "Actually no, I know what happened. It's all over the news," she told them pulling out her phone and showing them a video of a reporter talking about the explosion of Lexcorp in the middle of Metropolis. The reporter seemed to be blaming the explosion on a gas leak in one of the labs, but the fire department said they were still looking into it. "Oh, you messed up big time," she said throwing another popcorn into her mouth. The team didn't say anything, they just watched the video until the screen went black.

"Well, at least we got the blueprints back," said Miss Martian, holding them up. "And Luthor blew it up himself, I'm sure they won't blame us for the explosion."

"I agree with Miss Martian, the mission was accomplished," said Aqualad. They all turned to face Robin, he let out a loud sigh, removed his mask revealing his deep blue eyes to the team and stretched his hand for Aqualad to take it.

"I guess this is it," he said. Aqualad shook his hand and pulled him in for a small hug.

"We will save you a spot for your return," he said patting him on the shoulder. Robin smiled, the two of them were interrupted by Rocket and Zatanna hugging him while they said their goodbyes. Superboy shook his hand and Miss Martian pulled him in for a really long hug, she even cried a little while she spoke with him.

"Don't think you can get away from me, you still have to go to school," said Artemis joining in on the hug that was broken up when Kid Flash tapped on his shoulder.

"I know that you have to do this, but try to keep in touch," said Kid Flash going in for a hug.

"Will do," Robin returned the hug and patted Kid Flash in the back. After letting go of Kid Flash, his eyes landed on Nightshade who was throwing popcorn in Lance's mouth, but she stopped when Lance said something he couldn't hear, her face turned serious and she pushed the pop-corn to the side. Their conversation seemed tense, a little too tense for Nightshade which is why Robin decided to interrupt.

"I thought I wouldn't see you again for a while," he said. "Um…thanks for the advice," he said walking up to them.

"Any time Bird Boy," she answered looking at him. He wanted to apologize about the other night, or at least clear things up, but Lance's hand on her shoulder stopping him from saying anything else.

"I guess I'll see you around, Jade," he told her flashing a faint smile. The girl nodded and with that he walked up to Batgirl who chose to walk with him to the exit.


	33. To The Bone

New York City- September 25th - 9:00 P.M-

The city was being attacked by monstrous creatures, they looked like malformed humans that had their bones sticking out of their flesh, their faces were disfigured, and their skin seemed to be falling off further revealing their bones. The terrorized civilians ran away from the group of five creatures that were tossing them around while mumbling unintelligible things as they jumped around the streets. One of the creatures jumped over a man cornering him against a store window, he screamed for help while cowering back from the creature whose huge mouth hung open inches away from his face, but just when he though he was going to be killed by it, a knife hit the creature in it's exposed brain, but it didn't kill it, it just made the monster furiously turn around in the direction the knife had come from. There, in the middle of the street was Nightshade standing with another knife in her hand; the creature ran up to her and the girl threw it, stabbing it right in the head one more time.

"Wow, that really does nothing," she said after the creature kept charging at her. Nightshade moved out of the way and let it crash against the wall of the adjacent building. "let's see if this one works," she said pulling out her sword that lit up with blue fire, she ran up to the monster and jumped on its back and cut through the displaced bones and what little flesh was left until she managed to cut its head off finally stopping the creature.

"Just four more to go," Nightshade heard the familiar voice coming from behind her, and when she turned around she saw Batgirl looking down at her from the top of an overturned truck. "We were having the same problem in Gotham," she told her jumping down from the truck.

"And you came to my city because…"

"I followed their trace back to New York City," she answered before moving away from the blow of one of the creatures that had noticed the two of them. The other three were also coming their way, so Batgirl left Nightshade with the first creature and threw a freeze bomb to another one followed by a bomb that shattered the ice along with the body of the creature. "What do you think these things are?" She asked, doing the same with the other one. Nightshade didn't answer, she was too busy decapitating the remaining monster with her sword, but once its head fell to the ground, she turned around to face Batgirl.

"Probably some experiment gone wrong," she said kicking away the head. When she did, green 'blood' came pouring out onto the street. "Did you find anything else?" she asked; Batgirl's answer was interrupted by the flashes of cameras and shouting reporters.

"Nightshade!" Yelled one of them while waving his hand up in the air, "is it true that you might be involved in the murder of the cities senator?" he asked. Both girl simply turned their backs on the group, got on their bikes and drove away from the crowd. Nightshade led Batgirl through some empty streets before reaching her building.

It was a surprise for both Lance and Skye when they saw Barbara and Jade in their civilian clothing walking into the apartment. Jade threw her things on top of the kitchen counter where she usually left them while Barbara just set her things on the side. Lance walked over to them, a blanket covering his shivering body and leaned on top of Jade while staring blankly at Barbara. Skye just watched them from the kitchen while she prepared an extra sandwich for the red head that Jade had brought.

"What are you doing?" asked Lance, his voice cracked and rough from the obvious cold he had, he hadn't been sleeping well due to the constant headaches, but the bags under his eyes only made him look better than before. Jade moved him away from her and walked him over to the couch.

"I told you to go to bed early," she said, pulling the blanked higher up to his neck. "Show me what you have on those things," Jade turned around to look at Barbra who has too busy stuffing her face with the sandwich Skye had just handed her.

"Wight," she swallowed, "Do you have a computer?" her question was followed by Lance's muffled laugh.

"Bed. Now," said Jade pushing Barbara into another room. The three computer screens stared back at the red head and her sandwich while she gulfed down what was left of it and sat down in front of them. After seeing the batcomputer, nothing could surprise her, but the information this one had and the way it was kept managed to impress her a little more than she was willing to admit. Barbara pulled out a USB and showed Jade the information she had gathered from the attacks on Gotham, the same creatures showed up, but they seemed clumsier than the ones they had seen in New York, it was as if they had evolved somehow. "These things are being tested," said Jade.

"Yeah, but for what? Who's behind this and what do they plan to do with those things?" asked Barbara looking up at Jade.

"Looks like the team just got a new mission."

Mount Justice- September 28th- 2:00 P.M-

Two whole months after Robin left the team, they were struggling to fill in for him in missions, after all none of them were as tech-savvy as he was. The team had to be extra careful since they didn't know what was ahead or would have to guess certain things since he wasn't there to look them up in the spot. He was also the member with the most experience, so without him, they found themselves to be a little lost at times. After a particularly tough mission, the whole team was resting in the cave when Nightshade and Batgirl walked inside.

"Wow, now this is something I haven't seen before," said Nightshade leaning over the couch to see Miss Martian, Zatanna, Kid Flash and Artemis spreaded out on the couch with the rest of the team resting on the ground. "Why do they get the couch?" she asked.

"Not Now Nightshade," said Aqualad, barely moving his neck to look at them.

"They lost in rock, paper scissors," answered Kid Flash, his eyes still closed.

"It's been a little rough without Robin, we got used to having more people in the team," Miss Martian answered while she slowly sat up on the couch.

"Mayyybe I could fill that position" said Batgirl catching everyone by surprise and getting them to finally sit up and look at them. "That is only if you want me to," she told them.

"Yes!" they answered almost in sync.

"And I guess I could be more available if you need me," Nightshade told them. "Though I won't make any promises."

"Of course you won't," said Rocket going back to the floor. "What do you want?" she ended up asking knowing she wasn't there for small talk. Nightshade smirked before placing her phone on the table were everyone could see it.

"Batgirl has a mission for you," she said and let them watch the footage of the New York attack.

" _The two of us_ have been looking into this incident for the past few days and we believe that whoever is behind this is planning an attack on a larger scale," she told them. "We managed to locate the place where these creatures are coming from, but we still don't know who's behind this."

"Have you run this by the league?" asked Aqualad. Batgirl looked back at Nighthade, but all she did was shrug. "After the incident with Lexcorp, we were told to run everything by them and get their approval. Batman gave the order," he explained to the two of them.

"Told you," said Nightshade looking at Batgirl. "They won't do it, let's just stick to our plan and save them the trouble," she said looking at them now, scanning their faces for any reaction, but when she didn't see any, she grabbed Batgirl and started walking away when they heard Aqualad getting up from the ground.

"We will provide our assistance for this mission," he told them. Both girl turned around to see the whole team on their feet, and Batgirl's face lit up. "What do you have in mind?" he asked.

"Oh, that was a lie. I was trying to annoy you enough for you to want to come with us. We have no idea what's inside that place," said Nightshade, her usual smirk plastered across her face.

"I hate you," said Artemis.

New York City- September 30th- 9:34 P.M-

The team had gotten everything ready for the mission and they were currently hiding outside what looked like a laboratory in the middle of the woods in the outskirts of New York City. They were currently waiting for Miss Martian to return after they sent her into the facility to get a better look at what could be inside. Nightshade was in the back gearing up with some extra bullets when Rocket tapped on her shoulder to get her attention, but the girl just kept going through her things.

"When you came back I thought it had something to do with the assassins that were after you," said Rocket.

"Nah, there's only two left," she answered. "Haven't seen them for a while, so I guess they are just waiting for me to find them,"

"Okay, let me see if I got this, you are willingly looking for the people that are trying to kill you?  
she asked, Nightshade nodded. "And did you seriously kill the other five?" she asked looking down at the girl. She nodded again. Before Rocket could say anything else, their conversation was interrupted by Miss Martian's return.

"It's here, those creatures are everywhere. I couldn't find anyone else in the building, but I saw a map of New York City; whoever this is, they are targeting Time's Square for their plan," she told them pulling down her hood.

"Are they going to release those things into the city?" asked Zatanna looking back at Aqualad, who then gave the order to go into the building. They go in through one of the windows that Zatanna opened with her magic and then made their way through the hall. They slowly kept walking deeper into the building until one of the creatures came their way, so Batgirl froze with one of the bombs in her belt allowing them to keep walking for a few more minutes until they ran into a large group of creatures, all of which took notice of them and started roaring and launching themselves at the team.

"So much for stealth," said Rocking, hitting some of them with her energy beams.

"Guys, the room I saw is just up ahead," Miss Martian told them while she sent a creature flying to the opposite side of the room.

"On it!" Yelled Kid Flash running as fast as he could through the crowd of monsters until he reached the room and knocked it open. He quickly scanned every book, every piece of paper that was laying around, every cabinet and drawer. When he didn't find anything, he ran out of that room and directly into another one and went through the same process, but this time he found some launching codes scribbled in a piece of paper on top of the desk. Kid Flash grabbed it and ran out of the room with them and back to the team, one of the creatures was blocking his path, so the jumped and kneed the creature in the face knocking it down. "Found this," he told them, a little bit out of breath. Batgirl grabbed the paper and examined it carefully as the others kept the monsters away from her.

"They are really releasing these creatures into the city," she said after taking a look at the codes. "We need to stop the launch," she said. Nightshade grabbed the piece of paper and tucked it away in her belt, "what are you doing?"

"I think I know where the control room is," said Nightshade putting a bullet through one of those creature's head.

"I'm coming with you," she told her, shooting an arrow into another creature's chest.

"I think we passed it when we were coming here, it should be down that hall," she told her bobbing her head to the right, in the direction they had just come from, and also through the swarm of creatures. The archer nodded and the two of them started pushing back the creatures, making their way through them. Artemis killed some of them and took others down while Nightshade was shooting them in the head to make the process faster. The others didn't notice until the two of them were in the open and running back down the hall.

"What are you doing?!" asked Kid Flash, watching Artemis and Nightshade ran deeper into the hallway.

"We're going ahead! Try to stall them," answered Artemis right as she and Nightshade took a left turn and vanished from their sight. "I hope you know what you're doing," she eyed Nightshade who merely shrugged.

The rest of the team was left behind battling those huge bone monsters after the other two had ran away. Miss Martian took two creatures and smashed them against the wall breaking their bodies after seeing Superboy do the same with one of the monsters. Zatanna used a spell that pinned them to the ground and then Rocket finished them with her beams, Aqualad on the other hand, was using his water bearers as swords to run them through their chests. Kid Flash was knocking down the ones that Batgirl froze, but the creatures just kept coming their way.

"Ha! I have no idea what I'm doing," said Nightshade while she sat in front of the computer. She and Artemis had broken into one of the rooms that was labeled control room, it had a series of computers lined up against the wall and nothing else. The girl had been trying to figure out how to stop the launch with Lance trying to tell her what to do in between coughs and wheezes, but things just weren't working out. Artemis pushed Nightshade out of the chair and tried to follow his instructions, but she just ended up with a headache.

"Wanna trade?" asked Batgirl standing in the doorway.

"Yes please," said Artemis, she got out of the way and joined Nightshade who was keeping guard at the entrance, the girl prepared an arrow un case one of those things had followed Batgirl. Nightshade let out a laugh after seeing Artemis had given up just like her. "Don't. Say. A word."

"I didn't," she said preparing her gun. "Someone is coming," she said hiding her body behind the doorframe. Artemis did the same when she heard heavy footsteps making their way towards them.

"Batgirl, tell me you're almost done," said Artemis tensing up the arrow in her bow.

"Not really," she answered just as a hand smashed through the wall and pulled Nightshade out into the hall and threw her through the wall into another room that looked like the main laboratory.

"New research material," said a hoarse voice. Nightshade looked up to see A man that looked much like the other creatures, except it was much worse, his eyes were sticking out and his overgrown teeth poked right out of his mouth allowing them to see his gums, his skin had a green-ish color and his whole body was deformed by the bones sticking out of his skin making his limbs seem longer. "This time I'm sure you won't turn out like the others," he said getting closer to Nightshade only to be stopped by an arrow going through his chest. The thing merely pulled it out of his chest and turned around to see Artemis standing in the doorway. The creature launched itself at Artemis, but the girl dodged him and shot another arrow at his shoulder, before he could pull it out, the arrow exploded along with his arm.

The loud groan, got the team's attention and they headed in the direction of the scream to find the creature's arm growing back out. "Doctor Karl Helfern," said Kid Flash, remembering the name plaque he had seen in one of the offices.

"People call me Dr. Death now," he said, slowly mustering the words through his monstrous teeth. Three more creatures came in through the one of the walls and started attacking the team while Dr. Death picked up Artemis and moved her over to one of his tables, before he could get there, Kid Flash ran up to him and knocked him down getting his girlfriend back from his long hands. Meanwhile, Nightshade shot two of the creatures in the head killing them and left the other one for Rocket to take care of.

"I let you in here to be my new test subjects, don't make this harder on me!" he yelled launching a desk past the team and towards Batgirl who was still in the other room. Miss Martian managed to stop the desk before it could hit her and she returned the blow back at him, sending him against the wall.

"Test subjects?" asked Aqualad, but his question was never answered as Dr. Death recovered and went to grab Miss Martian. He lifted her up and with his other hand he grabbed a syringe and held it up to her neck. Artemis threw an arrow that grazed his skin, distracting him just enough for Superboy to knock him to the ground. Dr. Death got up and swatted Superboy away from him, the protruding bone from his arm cutting his skin as he was sent flying against the wall. Zatanna ran up to him, and cast a spell that was meant to hold him down, but Dr. Death just twisted his limbs and cracked his bones to escape the restraints.

"Guys! He's not launching an army, he's trying to make one with some sort of serum," said Batgirl, unaware of what was going on in the lab. The moment he heard her, Dr. Death reached out to grab the syringe once more and then grabbed the first person he could see which happened to be Nightshade.

"Well fuck," she said trying to get away from him, but his grip just got stronger. Rocket aimed a few energy blasts at him with little success until he finally injects the girl with his serum. The liquid burned as it entered her body, her leg started getting longer, and the loud sound of her bones cracking was only drowned out by her painful screams.

"I got it!" yelled Batgirl who was being guarded by Aqualad and Zatanna. As soon as Dr. Death heard those words, he dropped Nightshade and launched himself at Batgirl, but the team held him back, "just a few more minutes," said Batgirl as she finished destroying the system. Once it was completely destroyed, Aqualad got closer to Dr. Death and electrocuted him hard until the man swatted him away. Superboy took advantage of the distraction and punched him through a wall and into the next room allowing Rocket to trap him in a force field bubble.

"Nightshade!" yelled Artemis while she ran towards the girl that was now laying on the floor. The bones in her body were slowly returning to their usual position, and all that was left from her screaming was heavy panting.

"Too bad, I was really looking forward to Nightshade turning into a monster; Maybe then her looks would match her personality," said Rocket before she hit Dr. Death with energy beams forcing him to let go of the girl. Superboy helped her up and let her use his shoulder as a crutch, her leg might look alright, but it sure didn't feel like it.

"Funny," said the girl. "What now?" she asked.

"Now we take the survivors to the Justice League, they might be able to come up with an antidote," said Aqualad. After having put every unconscious creature in Miss Martian's ship and while still holding Dr. Death inside one of Rocket's force fields, they prepared to leave.

"You sure you're alright?" asked Artemis after she and Superboy had helped her to her bike.

"It's fine. I just need some more time, that shit was strong," she answered putting her helmet on.

"Let us know if there is something wrong," Superboy told her before he and Artemis left for the ship. Nightshade stayed behind on the ground until she saw the ship disappear in the night sky and only then, she made her way back to the city.

" _ **Nightshade,"**_ Lance's hoarse voice came in through her comm. _**"I know where the other two are hiding."**_

" _ **Send me the address,"**_ she told him, turning away from her apartment the moment she received his message.


	34. New Bird

Mount Justice- October 25- 10:00 A.M-

The team had been called in to the cave, they were waiting for Batman in the lounge when they heard a loud thud coming from the training room. The team rushed to see what was going on and they found Nightshade doing a simulated fight with computer generated enemies. Nightshade didn't notice them, so they placed themselves in the back of the room, they really hadn't seen her since the incident with Dr. Death. Lately she had been avoiding them saying that she was busy with other things in New York, but they knew that she was really tracking down the other two members of the Seven Men of Death.

Nightshade kicked one of the simulations, but it blocked her attack, so she used her other leg and managed to score a point. She then blocked a hit and retuned it with a punch to the face that scored her another point. Next, Nightshade moved on to the other image and using her fireballs she made a hole right in its chest, another one appeared, and she jumped over it only to kick the image in the back and bring it to the ground. More images kept popping up as the training went on, and she kept scoring points until she tried to kick one of the simulations, but her leg gave in and Nightshade fell to the ground.

"Fuck!" she said punching the floor. The simulation stopped, and Nightshade finally noticed them standing in the back of the room. "Did he also call you?" she asked shaking her hand before standing up.

"Yeah. Are you alright?" asked Superboy with Wolf right next to him.

"Yeah, it happens sometimes," she told them. "Though it's been less frequent now."

"How long have you been here?" asked Artemis grabbing one of the many knives that were stuck to the wall and handing it back to Nightshade.

"Well I got here at three in the morning, but I've been training since four…probably, I really don't remember," she said picking up the rest of her things. "What are they making us do now?" she asked them to avoid the subject.

"Nothing. For now," Batman walked into the room, "I wanted you all here to make the proper introductions. This is Robin, he'll be working with you in a few missions," he said. The team stared down at the boy Batman had said was Robin, his costume was almost identical to the one Dick used to wear, but he looked a few years younger than the rest of them, at least 12 or 13 years old. It was in that moment that the team understood what was going on with Robin and why he couldn't stay as the Boy Wonder any longer, yet that little kid was being shoved into the team by Batman.

Kid Flash broke the silence while keeping his eyes locked on the kid that was standing in front of Batman. "With all due respect, you can't be serious," he said.

"He's adorable!" Rocket exclaimed while she leaned on Nightshade, her arm on top of the girl's head ignoring the death stare she was giving her.

"I'm not adorable," Jason Todd answered, swatting away the hand that Rocket had extended to touch his face.

"Robin needs a few lessons on teamwork, I was thinking that the team could take him on a couple of missions," he told them. "Like the one you have right now. You're headed to Bialya, Queen Bee has been involved in some suspicious activity lately and we need more information on what is going on in the country. I'll say it just one time, do not engage," he finished talking and left Jason Todd alone with them.

"What are you all looking at?" he asked noticing their glances. "Are you really just going to stand there like idiots? Don't we have something to do?"

"Oh my god, he's a horrible person," said Artemis

"I was going more for annoying, but you might be onto something," Zatanna told her. Aqualad guided them all out of the room and towards Miss Martian's ship, but Batgirl stayed behind for a second and checked the entry log for the training session and saw that Nightshade had been logging in every morning for the past two weeks from 3 A.M to 7 A.M., she turned it off and walked away from that room into the hangar where they were waiting for her.

"I'm sitting this one out," said Nightshade staying outside of the ship just as Batgirl walked by her. "If Queen Bee sees me, she'll fucking cut my head off,"

"The point is not being discovered," said Aqualad, stopping Wolf from coming on board.

"Yeah right, because that always works for us," she answered running a hand over her leg.

"See you when we get back then," Rocket told her while pushing Aqualad into the ship. Miss Martian left the hangar while Nightshade watched them from the ground.

"Everything alright?" asked Black Canary who had appeared right behind Nightshade.

"Now you're talking to me?" she asked the blonde woman without turning around to meet her glance. Black Canary didn't answer, she just walked up to her, noticing how she was still massaging her leg, and stopped right in front of her.

"How about we pay a visit to Dr. Thompkings? I'm sue she can help you with that leg," she told her, a feeling of guilt had filtered through her tone. What Nightshade said the last time they spoke was true, she and Nightfall might share a body, but that didn't mean they were the same person.

"The doctor from Gotham city? She works with you?" Nightshade asked.

"She helps out when needed," Black Canary answered taking Nightshade away from the hangar and towards the zeta-tubes.

The team settled in their seats and tried to steal a glance at the new Robin while he looked around the ship.

"So, who's in charge of this mess?" he asked looking around at them. "I know it can't be you Batgirl, you're just as new to this as I am."

"That's not true," she answered under her breath. The others looked at Aqualad waiting for him to answer the kid's question.

"It is not a mess, it is a team. I am Aquald, the current leader," he told him staring down at Robin. "These are Miss Martian, Kid Flash, Superboy, Artemis, Rocket, Zatanna and you are already acquainted with Batgirl. Since this is the first time you join us for a mission we hope you will follow the plan," Aqualad kept talking, but it seemed obvious that Robin had stopped listening to him.

Yeah, yeah. Hey, who was the one that stayed behind? I thought all of you had to follow Batman's orders," he asked.

"That's Nightshade. She's not really part of the team, she just helps us from time to time, so she doesn't really have to follow Batman's orders," answered Miss Martian.

"Even if she did she would have been able to skip this one," Kid Flash said looking back at Robin. "I mean, you saw her practicing, after an incident with Dr. Death, her leg fails sometimes," he said.

"Yeah, that was so lame," said Robin leaning back on his chair. The rest of the team turned around and glared at the oblivious kid that was now looking out of the window. Trying to ignore his last comment, they went over the plan one more time, Rocket, Aqualad, Zatanna and Superboy would take care of the guards and clear a path for the rest of the team to make their way to were Queen Bee was holding a meeting, Miss Martian and Robin were in charge of holding a stake out outside of the building in case anything seemed unusual, and Artemis, Kid Flash and Batgirl would sneak into the building to find out who Queen Bee was meeting with and what they would be talking about.

Bialya- 4:43 P.M-

Miss Martian's ship flew over the country in camouflage mode all the way to a military base on the outskirts of the capital. The ship stopped a few feet away from the entrance allowing Rocket, Aqualad, Zatanna and Superboy to jump out of the ship unnoticed by the guards. The four of them made their way through until they first spotted a group of guards patrolling the surrounding area. Superboy came out from behind them and pulled two of them into the bushes while Rocket took care of the other two. They did the same with the other groups that were patrolling the area, until the only ones that were left were the guards in the front gate. After the others were done, Artemis, Kid Flash and Batgirl ran into the building, Batgirl shot a grappling hook up to the window in the second floor, Artemis climbed the rope and Kid Flash just ran up the wall. Once inside the building, they made their way towards the balcony that overlooked the main room of the hangar where they could hear Queen Bee's voice. Batgirl peeked over the railing and saw her talking with no one other than Wotan, his light blue skin and black hair with red eyes that matched his red clothes. A black cape placed over his shoulders floated behind him as he hovered over a table with blueprints and vials laid on top of it.

"What is he doing here?" asked Artemis joining Batgirl.

"Woah…okay, this is bad," said Kid Flash. "Think we should call it in?" he asked.

"Let's just wait a while, maybe we can find out what they are planning," Batgirl answered hiding once again.

"We can barely hear anything from here," said Artemis looking down at the girl.

"That's why we're going to make our way down and plant this," she answered pulling out a small microphone from her belt.

"Does everyone that works with Batman carries a utility belt with them?" asked Kid Flash looking down at Batgirl's belt. Both girls ignored his comment and started thinking of a way to get the microphone closer to them without being seen.

Meanwhile, Miss Martian and Robin had stayed behind in the ship looking over the building. The two of them sat in silence, Miss Martian had tried to make some conversation, but Robin would just cut her short, so she had given up.

"This is all we are doing?" asked Robin walking over to Miss Martian's chair.

"Yes," she answered.

"This is so boring!" he yelled looking down at the warehouse. "There's nothing going on down there! We should be with them inside that military base, not out here waiting for something to happen," he said and started hitting the floor of the ship with his foot trying to get it to open.

"Stop it! You're hurting her!" yelled Miss Martian using her powers to lift him up before he could keep hitting her ship. Angered, Robin pulled out a couple of bombs and threw them to the ground creating a huge hole, Miss Martian let go of him to cover herself from the blast and the fire, allowing Robin to jump out of the ship. Robin made his way through the base trying to stay unnoticed, which wasn't that hard since the others had cleared the path of guards. Rocket was keeping guard when she spotted Robin running towards the warehouse, she warned the others and when they tried to stop him they called attention to themselves forcing them to leave Robin alone and take care of the back up soldiers in the base before they could warn Queen Bee.

Robin made his way towards the window the other three had climbed through, he ran through the cleared hallways, but instead of staying on the second floor, he made his way downstairs and was about to run into the room when Kid Flash came and swooped him away into a room at the end of the hall. The others had warned them about Robin forcing them to move out of their hiding place and intercept him before he could reach Queen Bee and Wotan.

"Let me go!" he said trying to get away from Kid Flash, but he just held him tightly by the collar. Batgirl placed a hand over his mouth to silence him before Queen Bee and Wotan heard him.

"What do you think you're doing?" asked Batgirl in a hushed tone. "You almost screw everything up."

"Well, you are just staying here like idiots. We can stop them!" he told them, raising his voice a little.

"You probably don't know this, but those two are some of the most powerful villains we've faced, so yes, we are going to stand here and listen to what they are talking about!" Kid Flash matched his tone. "And you're going to stop giving us trouble," he told him. Robin calmed down while Kid Flash and Batgirl got a report from Artemis who had remained in the second-floor balcony to keep an eye on their uninterrupted meeting.

" _ **They're still there,"**_ she told them _**"but I think Wotan may have noticed you."**_

Batgirl walked out of the room carefully with Robin and Kid Flash right behind her, she peered around the corner and pulled out the small microphone and carefully rolled it closer to them. Wotan turned around after hearing the small rolling sound the microphone produced, but he saw nothing out of place in the room. Batgirl had pulled Robin and Kid Flash in and was currently holding them against the wall until Artemis confirmed that it was safe to return to the second floor. The four of them managed to listen into the rest of the conversation that lasted about an hour until an explosion was heard outside putting a stop to their meeting and forcing Queen Bee to go outside and inspect the military base.

"That's our cue to leave," said Kid Flash taking Artemis and Robin and running out of the building and towards Miss Martian ship with Batgirl closely behind him. Before leaving she looked down once more and found Wotan looking up at the balcony. She knew he couldn't see her because she was far away from the railing and his line of sight, but something about his stare made her uncomfortable. When a second explosion as heard, Batgirl ran out of the building through the window she came through and boarded Miss Martian's ship just in time for them to take off unnoticed.

"What was that about?" she asked the rest of the team.

"Soldiers where walking towards the building, we had to pull them away," answered Superboy.

"You idiots interrupted their meeting, before we could find out what their plan was!" yelled Robin.

"Well we didn't hear that, but we did hear where they are meeting next month," said Artemis, trying to ignore Robin's comments and hoping the other would do the same.

"That will be more than enough," said Aqualad looking at Robin who was sulking in his seat. "Let us head back to the cave." Miss Martian's ship followed his orders and took them back to Mount Justice.

Once they were back in the cave, they found that Nightshade was gone, and so was Black Canary and Red Tornado, but Batman was there, waiting for them. Batgirl handed him the recording of the conversation and gave him an abridged version of what they had said.

"And the meeting place?" he asked.

"They said it was a warehouse outside El Paso," she told him.

"We'll make arrangements then. Let's go, Robin," he said motioning for the kid to follow him out of the cave.

"Okay, who else found that kid insufferable?" asked Artemis after the two of them were gone. Hands went up in the air as soon as she finished her question. "Why would Batman change Dick for someone like that?" she asked the question that was on everyone's mind, but no one really had a clear answer.

"Seriously, I had to fight the urge to hit him every time I saw his face," said Rocket.

"At least you didn't have to hold him down when he tried to charge into a room with Queen Bee and Wotan in it," said Kid Flash.

"I believe Robin, this new Robin needs our help. That was the reason why Batman placed him under our care," said Aqualad. After further discussing the subject, they called it a day and went home hoping they wouldn't have to deal with the new Robin anymore.


	35. Secrets

El Paso, Texas- September 15- 7:24 P.M-

The team broke into an underground facility just behind Kord industries, they had followed Wotan into the place, and taking care of Queen Bee's guards had been easy. Batman had given them permission to engage if the situation went south, but still reminded them that their priority would be a stakeout. The team divided in two, one group would venture deeper into the facility and the other would keep an eye on Wotan, unfortunately for Robin and everyone with him, they had to stay with Wotan.

Aqualad, Rocket, Kid Flash, Superboy and Robin stayed hidden behind some construction materials that sat above a catwalk in the room Wotan was in. They stared down at the man that seemed to be setting up an altar, he was going through books, flipping the pages as fast as he could until he was interrupted by a man dressed in gray pants, a long brown trench coat, a black shirt with a white X on his chest and a black mask that completely covered his face with a white skull on top of it. Behind him, a woman in a black and white catsuit, thigh-high leather boots and a whip around her waist came out and stood next to Wotan.

"You're late," he told them. "Did you bring what I asked?" Wotan kept his focus in the books he was reading. The man stretched out his hand and handed him a bloodied bag.

"I just want to remind you that we are not your personal assistants, we have our own job to do," the woman told him.

"Right, you don't seem to be doing a very good job with that," answered Wotan, "I heard you're the only two left. Ra's al Ghul should rethink his assassin's training," Wotan told them, ignoring the death glares he was getting from the woman.

"Are those two part of the Seven Men of Death?" asked Superboy.

"I have a better question; do you think Nightshade knows about this?" asked Rocket.

"She knows," answered Nightshade sneaking up from behind them, startling Rocket and Superboy. "And she's pissed you didn't call her," she told them settling down next to them, the girl glanced at Robin hiding next to Aqualad, the kid looked bored slumped right next to him.

"What are you doing here?" asked Kid Flash getting her attention.

"I followed Whip and Shellcase all the way here," she answered looking down at the two of them. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"Following Wotan," answered Rocket. Their conversation was interrupted by the one going on below them, as the two assassins prepared to leave.

"I'll leave that to you then," said Wotan brushing off the two assassins. Rocket and Aqualad shared a look as soon as they heard that.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll let you know when it's done," said Shellcase.

"What are they going to do?" asked Kid Flash, having missed the whole conversation.

"Wotan needs something else for the ritual he's preparing, but because you were talking we couldn't hear it," said Superboy looking at Rocket, Kid Flash and Nightshade.

"Well, stopping Wotan seems to be a lot more important…Good luck with that," she told them trying to go after Whip and Shellcase, but Rocket shoved Robin towards her.

"You take care of Wotan, we'll go after the other two," she told them.

"Tell the rest of the team to head towards Miss Martian's ship," ordered Aqualad as he and the others left Nightshade behind with Robin.

"Wait! Don't leave me with the little asshole!" Nightshade whispered after the team knowing full well they would never turn back. Robin tried to hit her, but she stopped him with one hand, keeping him at arm's length. "Don't even try," she said pushing him back. The girl had just settled back down when she felt a tap on the shoulder and turned around to see Artemis and Kid Flash standing right behind them.

"We felt bad leaving you alone with that little nightmare. Just so you know, the rest of the building seems to be empty," Artemis told her sitting down next to her. Before Nightshade could answer, Wotan started his chanting.

"He's starting the ritual, we need to stop him now!" said Robin, trying to jump down on Wotan, but before he could do it, Nightshade pulled him back down on the catwalk

"Sit down Nancy Drew," said Nightshade glaring up at Robin and letting go of his cape, "we need to find out what this is for," she said and turned around to look at Wotan for a second, and when she turned back to Robin, he was jumping down aiming to land right on top of Wotan, but the man disappeared before Robin could hit him only to reappear right behind Nightshade, Kid Flash and Artemis. "This suddenly seems so much higher than before," Wotan Blasted them in the back sending them next to Robin. Nightshade glared at him while she got up from the ground and Wotan materialized in front of them. Kid Flash and Artemis got in fighting position but didn't attack right away.

"Finally, a good fight!" said Robin, taking out a couple of birdarangs and throwing them at him.

"We're going to die," said Nightshade moving away from Wotan as he dodged the birdarangs. Wotan blasted Artemis before the girl had the chance to pull out an arrow, and blocked Kid Flash's path by creating a wall construct in front of him and forcing him to crash right into it. Wotan set his sights on Robin, he tired to blast him, but the kid moved away and ran towards him to try to hit him, but the man disappeared right before he could even touch him and reappeared behind him. Robin quickly got up and moved away from the way of Artemis' arrow that got burnt the moment it got too close to Wotan's stretched hand. Three copies of the man appeared and each one took care of Artemis, Robin and Kid Flash who had gotten back up and was trying to stay clear of the lightning coming out of Wotan's hands.

Artemis was quickly going through her arrows, until she could only feel the last five in her quiver, so she switched to using her bow as a weapon to keep Wotan at bay. While it worked for a while, his magic forced her to run away to try and find something else she could use somewhere else in the building. Robin on the other hand, was keeping himself close to Wotan leaving him little room to counterattack, but when the man found an opening he used it to bring Robin to the ground. He got ready to blast him while Robin prepared himself to dodge the hit, but before anyone of them could do anything, Nightshade ran past and grabbed Robin taking him deeper into the facility.

" _ **Scream if you're about to die,"**_ Nightshade told Kid Flash and Artemis thought the comm, her other hand still holding Robin's. "Hey, let me ask you something, you wouldn't happen to know magic, would you?" she asked, dodging the oncoming blasts Wotan was throwing them while he followed.

"No," answered Robin pulling his hand out of her grip.

"Then how about Dr. Fate's number on speed dial?" she asked, taking a sharp left turn when Wotan blocked their path. Robin was heading right, so to keep him with her, the girl pulled his cape once again and placed the kid right in front of her. She thought that sooner or later they would find a way off the place, but unfortunately for them, they reached a dead end. "Fuck."

The room they had just walked into had no doors, hatches or even a vent they could climb trough. Robin and Nightshade turned around to see Wotan levitate into the room. His hands surrounded in yellowish energy ready to strike.

"Is this what your big plan was?" asked Robin.

"You're right, next time I just won't save you," answered Nightshade watching Wotan's hand change from the yellow energy to a flaming fire. Wotan threw a couple of fireballs their way, but they soon dispersed after Nightshade closed her fist. "Try something else," she told him, creating blue fire in the palm of her hand and throwing a fire wave towards him. Wotan raised his hand and force field was created around him just in time to absorb the fire.

"I should say the same," answered Wotan.

"Sure," she said pulling out her sword, but before she could use it, Robin ran up to Wotan ready to kick him when Wotan casted a spell that stopped him mid air and threw him back all the way across the room. "Just to be clear, that wasn't what I was going to do," she told him pressing the button on the back of her sword pushing out the blade and running up to him, when he tried to do the same thing again, Nightshade distracted him with a couple of blue fireballs allowing her to stick her blade right through his shoulder.

Seattle- 9:12 P.M-

The rest of the team split up when Shellcase and Whip did, Superboy, Rocket and Miss Martian go after Whip and Aqualad, Zatanna and Batgirl followed Shellcase. The three that went after the woman followed her all the way to Seattle, it took them a while to realize it, but Whip was trailing Lance who was suited up as Red Shot. The woman followed him through the city as Red Shot made his way towards a warehouse in the middle of the city and introduced a security code before going inside.

"Is she just going to stand there?" asked Rocket, expecting the woman to go inside, after all, they had all been able to see the code he had used.

"I think it's better if she doesn't," answered Superboy. She stayed outside for a couple of minutes before punching in the code and entering the warehouse. The three of them quietly followed her inside to find rows and rows equipped with weapons and different equipment that matched Nightshade's style. Military arsenal was casually placed on the shelves, ready to be taken by anyone, they kept walking through the shelf-maze but had to stop when a red blast hit the shelf right in front of them knocking down the weapons. The team turned around to see Red Shot standing right behind them, his hand surrounded by the same red energy.

"What are you three doing here?" he asked them never putting down his guard.

"We could ask you the same thing," Miss Martian told him right as her eyes started glowing green and as shelf was lifted off the ground and was sent flying towards Red Shot; he managed to dodge it and in return he flew right up to Miss Martian and pushed her into the wall of the warehouse.

"Didn't I kick your asses before?" he asked. Without saying anything else, Superboy launched himself at Red Shot, who ducked and Superboy ended up hitting the wall instead of him, Rocket then hit Red Shot with energy blasts, that matched his. It wasn't until Miss Martian spotted Whip running through the shelves trying to get out of the warehouse that she tried to leave the fight with Red Shot, but he blasted her in the back.

"What are you doing?" she asked, "we're not here for you, we're here for her," said Miss Martian pointing at the woman. Red Shot let go of her and started going after Whip, blocking her path with one of the shelves. Before the shelf fell over the woman, Superboy grabbed Whip and pulled her out of the way of a sword that fell off the moment Red Shot hit the shelf. He held onto her to prevent her from fleeing, but the woman pulled out her whip and hit Superboy's arm forcing him to let go.

"Who is she?" asked Red Shot, watching her running away.

"Oh, so now you want to listen," Rocket told him before flying off after her. The woman pulled out her whip and grabbed her foot forcibly pulling her down to the ground. Before she could do the same thing with Miss Martian, she sent Whip against the wall, taking a few shelves with her. Once she was on the ground, Red Shot got ready to strike Whip, but the woman pulled him down too and he crashed loudly against the ground.

"Okay, who the fucking hell are you?" he asked getting up from the ground.

"Wait, you don't know?" Miss Martian asked him

"She's Whip. One of the seven assassins that are after Nightshade," Superboy told him, a bit shocked that he didn't know about it.

Red Shot didn't have much time to get over the shock because Whip had pulled one of the guns sitting on the shelf and was now pointing it at them. "This is what we're going to do, I'm getting out of here alone and you are all going to let me," she ordered, not lowering the gun for even a second.

"Well this is just sad," said Rocket.

"Are this really the people The Light is sending after Nightshade?" asked Red Shot looking over at Superboy. A bit confused, Whip put the gun down for a second, and in that moment Superboy ran over to her and punched her across the face. As she fell to the ground, Whip shot him, aiming at his chest only to have the bullet bounce right off. With her eyes wide open and her back to the wall, her hand went down to reach for her whip, but before she could, Red Shot came up from behind her and pulled her arms over her head while Miss Martian took her whip away from her.

"Let me go," said Whip as Superboy carried her over his shoulder. Seeing as that wouldn't happen, she reached down for a small device hidden behind her belt and slowly pressed the button. "I guess we just blow up together then," she told them, knowing they were far enough from the door to make it in time before the series of bombs she had planted went off.

"What did she just say?" asked Rocket looking back at Whip, just as the explosions started happening.

"Why is it that something like this happens every bloody time you're around?" asked Red Shot right before they started running away towards the exit of the building. "We're not gonna make it!" yelled Red Shot over the sound of the explosions.

"He's right," said Rocket surrounding all of them in a force field and flying off through the roof of the warehouse. The building was completely taken over by the fire that was made worse by the countless grenades and explosives they were keeping inside.

"Well, there goes more than a million dollars in arsenal," said Red Shot looking down at the burning building.

"We're going to need to ask you some questions," Miss Martian told him, "and you are going to answer them one way or another," she told him, her eyes gaining a green glow.

"Wow, she really can be scary," answered Red Shot.

Central City- 9:12 P.M-

Aqualad, Zatanna and Batgirl followed Shellcase to Central City. Once they reached the city, they saw Livewire flying over with Shellcase following her from the ground, but never engaging. They followed the two of them until Livewire stopped just outside the city, she stood on the side of a backroad in plain sight. The team hid behind some bushes since that was the only thing around the place, and when she did nothing but stand there for a few minutes, they saw that Shellcase was getting ready to step out, but then a Maserati pulled up right next to her and a woman in a black metal armor that covered her entire body stepped out of the car.

"I was hoping Nightshade would send over her boy toy," said the woman.

"Ugh, don't do that. That's my brother you're talking about, Blacksmith."

"Who's Blacksmith?" asked Zatanna.

"Blacksmith runs an underground black market in Central and Keystone city," Batgirl told her, pulling out her phone and taking a photo of the exchange. "Looks like this is not the first time they meet."

"Can't be helped, he's a real nice piece of meat," Blacksmith continued. "Anyway, do you have my payment then?" she asked. Livewire pulled out a USB and handed it to Blacksmith.

"Where's our stuff?" she asked the woman who then moved away to reveal a large black crate.

"Try not to damage anything this time. I don't do refunds," Blacksmith told her. Livewire glared at her and opened the crate to reveal it was full of guns and explosives. She shuffled some things around before finally closing the crate.

"Do you know what this looks like?" asked Batgirl.

"looks like Nightshade has not entirely left her old life behind," said Aqualad watching Livewire leave the meeting place with the case and right behind her, Shellcase followed.

" _ **Aqualad, we have Whip….and Red Shot,"**_ Miss Martian informed him.

" _ **Take them back to the apartment, Shellcase will probably follow Livewire there,"**_ he ordered, not surprised about the fact that the team had captured Red Shot as well.

El Paso, Texas – 9:12 P.M-

Nightshade had managed to land a few more hits after the first one, but this time Wotan pushed her back against the wall. Robin took this as a sign to try again and attack him, but when that failed, Wotan raised his hand and after reciting a couple of words, Robin found himself surrounded by five copies of him. Nightshade raised her hand and a blue firewall consumed all five of them before the original one could even move.

"Don't just stand there, do something useful," she told him, and as if that was all he needed to hear, Robin launched himself once again towards Wotan, he tried to hit him but the man either dodged his hits or blocked them and returned them with something even harder. Robin looked back at Nightshade to see her standing against the wall rubbing her leg; Wotan took the chance and grabbed Robin's arm and threw him to the ground. The kid quickly got up and this time he pulled out an explosive and stuck it to Wotan's back, causing the man to squirm while he tried to take it off his back only to have it blow up in his hand. When Nightshade noticed, she ran over to Robin and caught him as they were both pushed through a wall and into another room by the explosion. Still holding onto Robin, Nightshade groaned and opened her eyes to find Wotan, the actual Wotan looking down at them. "Of course."

"What is going on?" asked Robin, pushing himself away from her and getting up from the ground. "Doesn't matter, you're going to blow up just like the other one," he said and charged towards him again.

"Don't do that…" said the girl while still on the ground, the pain in her leg had increased, but she decided to get up anyway. "Why? Why the fuck do I do this to myself?"

"Welcome to the club, mate." Nightshade heard a familiar British accent coming from behind, and then a yellow streak ran past her to grab Robin. Nightshade sighed as soon as the smell of cigarette smoke hit her nose, John Constantine stopped right next to her, his cigarette still in his mouth. "Are these yours by any chance? I found them in the back," He asked creating a barrier around Artemis, Kid Flash, Robin, Nightshade and himself.

"Uhh an introduction would be nice," said Kid Flash.

"Constantine, this is Kid Flash, Artemis and next to them is the reason why we're in this mess," she told him. "Guys, this is John Constantine. The most hated man in the magic realm; you'll soon find out why," she told them.

"Were you this amusing the last time we met?" he asked breaking the barrier and walking past her leaving behind his cigarette smoke floating in the air behind him.

"Hey, not like I care, but is your quilt friend here?" she asked going after Constantine, glancing around the room.

"Quilt friend?" asked Artemis taking out an arrow from her quiver and shooting it at Wotan who redirected it at Kid Flash, but he got away.

"His name is Ragman, and no. I was following Wotan's trail alone, and I ended up meeting your friends in the way in," he told her as he deflected a hit from Wotan. Robin ran past the two of them and slid down trying to trip Wotan, but the man just levitated and avoided the hit. "What exactly was your plan to stop him?" he asked her, baffled at how bad they were losing. Nightshade looked back at him with a blank stare.

"You think we had a plan?" she asked staying behind him using him a shield to block Wotan's powers. Annoyed, Constantine pushed her out from behind him and right in front of Wotan's blast. Nightshade lifted her hand up and blocked the hit with a blue firewall returning the blast with her fire powers; pushing him back.

"That was cruel, man," said Kid Flash running up to Constantine.

"She's alright, isn't she?" he told him crushing his cigarette under his boot and getting closer to Wotan. Constantine cast a spell that kept Wotan at bay giving Nightshade enough time to move out of the way along with Artemis and Robin. "Now Wotan, what in the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"

"Constantine, I knew it would be a matter of time before you found me," he answered. Talking to him for the first time. "At the moment we are trying to start a test run, but these kids keep getting in the way," he said sending a magic blast their way only to be blocked by Constantine.

The man in the trench coat pulled out another cigarette, put it in his mouth and lit it up. "Yeah, they seem like a bloody pain in the ass," he answered. "But I kind of understand them, a shady guy like you working with a shady organization, that can't add up to anything good." Constantine's monologue was interrupted by Robin's birdarangs hitting Wotan in the back followed by an exploding arrow that sent him flying against the wall. "I was dealing with that," he said, keeping his lit cigarette in his mouth.

"Not very well," said Robin pushing past him.

"What a little shithead,"

"We know," Kid Flash and Nightshade answered at the same time while Artemis joined Robin. The two of them where quickly swatted away by Wotan's magic and that was when Constantine turned to look at Nightshade.

"You know who would be so much more useful right now?" he asked.

"Not happening," the girl answered moving out of the way of a horde of sword constructs that came flying her way. Wotan then set up a magic force field around the table where he had everything he needed to resume his spell. Constantine tried to get through, but his magic was being repelled by the force field. As Wotan kept chanting, Constantine grew more uncomfortable.

"It's no longer a question," he told Nightshade grabbing her head and placing a spell on the girl, a spell that forced Nightshade to sleep allowing Nightfall to take over. The change in appearance was quick, the red-headed had also ripped off her mask and her bright red eyes were glaring at Constantine.

"What do you think you're doing?" asked Artemis, her eyes widened when she saw what Constantine had done to Nightshade. "Are you crazy? What makes you think Nightfall would help us with Wotan?" She asked him.

"Who's that?" Robin popped his head from behind Kid Flash looking at the red-head that had taking Nightshade's place. The girl turned around to look at the kid and a shiver ran up his spine when her red eyes met his and it didn't stop until Kid Flash stepped in front of him again, blocking her gaze.

"She'll help, after all Wotan is working for the Light," said Constantine, "and we all know she passionately hates them, right mate?"

"Nightshade talks too much," said Nightfall cracking her knuckles and opening a shadow portal then coming out of another one on the other side of Wotan's force field. Wotan stepped back from the table, still chanting his spell until a shadow hand came up from behind him and placed itself over his mouth interrupting him. Two more figures erupted from Nightfall's side and made their way towards him only to be eliminated by his magic, Wotan moved closer to her and released a wave of magical energy that Nightfall escaped by creating a portal and reappearing behind him. "That might have worked with Nightshade, but I'm better," said Nightfall, creating shadow energy from her hands and using it to push Wotan against his own force field causing him to break it, so he could be free from the pressure.

After the force field broke, Kid Flash ran over and landed a couple of hard hits on Wotan distracting him enough to allow Artemis' last explosive arrow to blow him away. "You think that's what it takes to defeat me?" asked Wotan looking over at the group. Constantine looked over at them and then back at Wotan who was still on the ground with his back against the wall.

"Pretty much, mate," he answered. Nightfall crouched down on the ground placing the palm of her hands firmly on the floor as human looking shadows stretched out of her fingers and made their way towards Wotan's shadow and pulled it away to the wall. The group watched in horror as his body followed his shadow and then started to contort as the other shadows pushed and pulled from the limbs of his shadow. "Apparently, she disagrees with me," Constantine said as he walked away from them and stood in front of the table looking at the thing Wotan was using for his spell. The table had a tiny bloody corpse on top, probably a child's corpse next to an open book that Constantine took his time examining.

"Nightfall, that's enough," said Artemis when the shadows started heading for Wotan's neck. When the girl didn't listen, Artemis pressed her bow against Nightfall's neck and pushed her head back.

"Wow, someone's ballsy," said Nightfall chuckling at the girl's attempt.

"Let him go," she ordered. Nightfall's red eyes met hers and with an unsettling smirk, she lifted her hands off the ground. Artemis moved her bow away as soon as the shadows dissipated, and Wotan was allowed to breathe again.

"Don't ever do that again," Nightfall warned Artemis as she walked by her and Kid Flash. Robin glared at her from under his mask, as she passed him by, she looked down to meet his gaze and once again, a shiver ran down his back; she gave him a smirk and continued towards Wotan.

"What is The Light planning this time?" she asked kicking the man back into the wall before grabbing him by the collar.

"What makes you think I'll tell you anything," he answered in between coughs, his eyes looking right into hers.

"I think you will, after all I can be pretty convincing," Nightfall answered, darkness pouring out of her body, a darkness that was starting to consume Wotan until Constantine spoke.

"Sorry to interrupt your torture session, you seem to be very bloody fond of it, but I know what he was trying to do," he said holding up the book that was once on the table. "A city-wide mind control spell, isn't that right, mate?" he asked looking over at Wotan who was recovering from what Nightfall had done. The man didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. Nightfall stared down at the man still shaking and with a wide, sinister smile she turned back into Nightshade.

"Oh, thank god she's back," said Kid Flash when he saw Nightshade walking back to them, grabbing the mask that was on the floor and placing it back on.

"Aw so soon? I wanted to have a word with Nightfall," Constantine told her as the girl passed her by.

"Fuck off, Constantine," she told him lighting up the rest of his cigarette on fire forcing him to drop it. "Do that again and I will fucking roast you," she glared at him. The group started walking away from the scene leaving Constantine alone with Wotan.

"Such and unpleasant little shit," he said watching them leave. "Come on, mate. Dr. Fate wants to have a word with you," he said pulling out another cigarette and pulling Wotan away into a portal.

New York City- 12:34 A.M-

When Batgirl, Zatanna and Aqualad arrived with Livewire and Shellcase at Nightshade's apartment, they noticed that the man stayed behind as Livewire went into the building. They saw Shellcase trying to get in touch with Whip, but when he couldn't, he mumbled something to himself that the other three couldn't quite make out and then left. Once he was out of sight, the three of them ran over to the apartment, to meet with the rest.

Livewire took off her mask as soon as she crawled through the window and dropped the large crate to the ground. She turned on the light of the living room and walked over to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water.

"Hey Lance?" she called out to see if her brother had come home before her.

"Skye," he replied.

"Oh, you're here. Did you know Blacksmith has a thing for you?" she asked him, turning around to find the team standing there with Lance, and another woman she didn't recognize tied up in the corner. "what is going on?" she asked.

"We were about to ask the same thing," said Batgirl showing her the pictures of the exchange she had made with Blacksmith while Superboy opened the crate and examined all the weapons.

"Look, I told you before, we were restocking our weapons," Lance told them for the second time apparently. "We have a warehouse where we keep our supplies, as you can see, there's not a lot of space here," he said.

"And do you get all your weapons from black-market-running supervillains?" Asked Zatanna.

"Well, what can I say, she's cheaper. For us at least," Lance answered.

"What did you pay her with?" Aqualad asked looking up at Skye.

"Blacksmith is always looking for criminals to join her black-market trade, so we just hand her some information on potential new buyers and sellers," Skye answered. "I'm sorry, I'll answer all of your questions, but first I really need to know who is that woman and what is she doing in my living room floor?" she asked pointing at her.

"Whip, remember? From the Seven Men of Death. Apparently, Nightshade was still being targeted and she didn't bother to tell us," Lance told his sister. He slumped down on the couch, sulking.

"Why didn't she tell me?" asked Skye. "I'm her best friend, I thought she would tell me…" Skye said to herself. The team and Lance stayed quiet as Skye started to silently cry, Miss Martian walked over to the girl and gave her a hug while she kept crying.

"What are we going to do about this?" Zatanna asked. "Should we tell Nightshade?"

"No," answered Aqualad, Lance, Superboy and Batgirl.

"Yes," said Rocket, Miss Martian and Skye. After that, the room fell silent, no one said anything until Rocket spoke up.

"We're not going to tell her?" asked Rocket, "this people know who she is, where she lives, who she lives with. I think she should know."

"What good would come from telling her?" asked Aqualad. "It would not change anything."

"She could protect herself better," said Miss Martian.

"It's not like she hasn't been doing well on her own," said Superboy.

"We'll just watch over her, all of us." Aqualad ordered, "but we won't tell her anything, not until we know what they are planning."


	36. Deadly

For the past couple of months, the team had been taking Nightshade along for every single mission, not allowing her to refuse. Though every time they went on a mission, usually one or two of them would stay behind to stakeout Nightshade's apartment. During this time, Shellcase had been quiet and with Whip locked up in Blackgate Prison, no one was showing up anywhere near the apartment.

After a while of this, Nightshade had gotten suspicious, especially after seeing someone that looked like Miss Martian flying over her place one night. She had asked Lance to look into what the team was doing, but he covered up for them in an attempt to keep Nightshade in the dark about what was really going on. After Lance's warning, the team started being more careful about where they held the stakeout.

Gotham City- November 20th- 10:24 P.M-

The team had taken Nightshade on a mission to Gotham's sewage system, following Killer Croc's trail.

"This is gross," Artemis complained as they splashed around in the waters.

"Come on, it's not that bad," Zatanna told her.

"Why don't you come down here and try it then?" Superboy asked looking up at Zatanna who was flying over them. The girl checked the green colored waters from a safe distance, they looked dirty and for a second, she could have sworn something moved under there.

"I think I'm good," she answered flying ahead of the team. The team kept walking until they heard loud splashing coming from in front of them, it was Kid Flash who had been sent ahead to search the sewers.

"Found him!" he yelled as he ran towards them and hid behind Nightshade. The two of them had barely enough time to take a few steps back before Superboy intercepted Killer Croc holding his jaws open right before they could reach them and punching him right in the face. "I think we need to rethink this plan," said Kid Flash before picking up Nightshade and moving her away from them as the girl shot Killer Croc in the chest, getting only his attention since the bullets just bounced from his thick skin. When Croc started following them, they led him up to the trip wires Artemis had set for him, he managed to avoid the first one, but that led him right into the second one.

"Maybe not," said Nightshade watching Killer Croc stumble and splash hard into the water. Aqualad got ready to attack Croc when he received a call from Rocket who had been staking out Nightshade's apartment with Robin.

" _ **Shellcase broke into the apartment,"**_ she told him. Aqualad could hear the sound of a gun firing in the background.

" _ **Is everyone safe?"**_ he asked, glancing over at Nightshade who he found was staring back at him.

" _ **We're holding on, but I don't know for how long,"**_ Rocket answered.

"What the fuck are you doing? Batgirl had to cover for you," said Nightshade after making her way to him, "what happened to the plan?" she wondered, trying to get Aqualad to look at her, but he was too busy looking at the rest of the team who had their hands full with Croc.

"Shellcase and Whip had been staking out your apartment for a few months, we sent Rocket and Robin there, but it seems Shellcase made a move…" Aqualad wasn't allowed to finish as he was interrupted by Nightshade punching him in the stomach before running away from the sewers. _**"Nightshade's heading your way,"**_ he informed Rocket, right as Killer Croc was running towards him.

Manhattan, New York City- 11:54 P.M-

Nightshade Made her way through the streets, dodging cars and swerving through traffic, not caring about the cars that she was scratching or the people she almost ran over on her bike. As she got closer to the apartment, she could hear the sound of Shellcase's gun. When she got to the apartment, she ditched her bike ran all the way up the stairs towards her place. Without hesitating she burst the door open just in time to see Shellcase, kicking Skye into the wall. Nightshade dropped her things at the door and got in between the two of them lighting her hand on fire. When she ran past the hallway, she caught a glimpse of Rocket laying on the ground facedown.

"Glad you could finally join us!" he said.

"What are you doing here?" yelled Skye while clutching her stomach and gasping for air. Honestly, she wasn't making a convincing argument with that face. Nightshade didn't answer, she just threw a fireball at him, but he dodged and it hit the wall, that was when she noticed Lance on the ground, half conscious. Angered, the girl launched herself at him and threw a couple of punches at him, followed by a kick which unleashed a full-blown attack that ended in Shellcase hitting the wall next to Lance. He gave her a smirk as he stood up and dust himself off; with a quick hand movement, he pulled out one of his guns and started shooting at the girl who created a blue-fire shield that melted the bullets as soon as they touched it. Shellcase ran out of bullets and dropped the gun to the side, forcing the girl to lower the shield.

"Are you done?" she said, her voice reflecting her anger. Nightshade looked back at Skye, she had been beaten up by Shellcase, it didn't look that serious, but she was fragile, she had always been fragile. She had seen Rocket and Lance, but Aqualad had said that Robin was with Rocket, so where the hell was he? She wondered. While she was distracted, Shellcase had managed to get close enough to her to grab her by the arm and lift her up and throw her against the wall. While she was on the floor, she saw Robin come out from the hallway, run over to Shellcase and punch him across the face before the man.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said leaning down just as Robin was going to kick him, he then turned around and grabbed the kid's leg, he held him up in the air and punched him in the stomach before dropping him on the ground. At that point, Nightshade was the only conscious person left in the room, she slowly got up from the ground and threw a knife at him that brushed his cheek. Shellcase lifted his mask to wipe the blood from his face, a smile plastered across his face. "I see you still got some fight in you."

"What did you say? I couldn't hear you over all that blood in your mouth," Nightshade said pulling out some more knives from her belt. She threw them at him, but Shellcase dodged them all, every knife she threw was dodged or grabbed and thrown back at her. She was caught off guard and some of the knives managed to hit her, so she chose a different approach. Nightshade pulled them out and lit her fist on fire, she started shooting fireballs at him and dodging as he pulled out another gun and started firing at her again. Some of the bullets grazed her skin, but it wasn't until one of them got dangerously close to her face that she put up a shield again. Unable to see through the flames, she lowered it as soon as she heard a grunting sound. Somewhere during the fight, Skye had gotten up and was electrocuting him. She was on the brink of losing control when Lance Jumped on top of Shellcase and released a red energy beam right in his face forcing him against the wall, but Shellcase took him along and Lance hit the wall hard. Skye had stop her lightning, but it had left her exhausted.

"I think we need more privacy," Shellcase told her, looking out the window. Nightshade followed his gaze, to where Aqualad and the rest of the team was coming. She looked back at him, a sharp pain ran through her side and after drawing her hand to touch the wound, she noticed that none of the wounds the bullets had caused were healing. Shellcase laughed and threw a grenade that blew up the wall that looked over to the street. "See you later, Nightshade," he told her and jumped out the hole in the wall. Nightshade stood in her living room watching him land intact on the ground, missing the team for a few seconds.

"Jade, don't go," said Lance, almost losing consciousness. The rest of the team made their way into the apartment in time to see Lance pass out.

"Where is Shellcase?" asked Aqualad making his way towards Nightshade.

"He got away," she said putting away her gun and knives. Nightshade glared at him and took a step back from him. "You knew, didn't you?" Nightshade asked them. "Why didn't you fucking tell me that there were two assassins stalking my apartment?!" She yelled.

"Jade, we thought we could handle it quietly," Batgirl answered.

"Well that turned out fucking great, didn't it?" she said, pointing at the unconscious people in her living room floor. Silence filled the room as Nightshade rubbed her forehead, she took a few deep breaths and took her time examining the room and the whole situation.

"Are you alright?" asked Aqualad, Nightshade stood there completely silent.

"Ask me again later," she said walking towards the door and bringing her hand to her ear over the comm. _**"Batman, I need a favor,"**_ she said before grabbing a black bag from behind the kitchen counter and storming out of the room.

"I told you we should have said something," a now conscious Rocket said while leaning against the wall. Aqualad stared down at the others before telling Superboy, Kid Flash and Miss Martian to take them back to the cave.

November 27th – 5:15 P.M-

It had been days since the team had last heard of Nightshade, they had been looking for her while keeping Lance and Skye safe in the cave, but there had been no luck. The Justice League had also been informed about the situation, apparently Nightshade had called Batman asking him to keep the siblings away until everything died down. After hearing what she had done, the team tried to trace her communicator, but it seemed that Nightshade had destroyed it.

"She has to be somewhere, people don't just vanish," said Kid Flash while Batgirl went through some security cameras in New York City.

"Jade does," Lance told them, he was sitting down next to Batgirl going through other footage of the city. "I mean she knows a lot of people, one of them could be helping her," he told them before finally giving up and leaning back on the chair.

"I thought most people hated Nightshade," Robin cut into the conversation.

"I never said they would help her because they wanted to. If anyone is, it's probably someone that owes her a favor," Lance clarified.

"That should narrow the list of people we could talk to, right?" Miss Martian asked looking over at Skye, who in the past few days, had been in a permanent state of shock.

"Not really, she…used to do a lot of favors for people," Skye answered, her eyes fixated on the wall right in front of her. As Batgirl and Lance went back to looking at the cameras, Aqualad and Superboy rushed into the room, getting everyone's attention.

"We have a problem," said Superboy.

"Whip escaped from Blackgate," Aqualad finished.

New York City- December 3rd – 2:48 A.M-

After days of looking for Shellcase, Nightshade had finally found him in a vacant office building in downtown New York City, she was completely certain that it was a trap, yet she walked into the building. The first thing she saw in the reception was a note taped to the elevator that read 'see you on the twelfth floor'. Nightshade ripped the paper off and pressed the button to the elevator that was already on the first floor. The ride up was slow, but when the elevator finally made it, she found herself staring down the barrel of a gun. The girl was given just a few seconds to move away before Shellcase pressed the trigger. The bullet hit the mirror and shattered it, leaving Nightshade with a disturbed image of what was in that floor.

"Fuck it," she said before running out the elevator, pushing Shellcase away from her giving her enough space to run deeper into the room. It was completely empty except for a few boxes and crates that were scattered across the room; it didn't even have a carpet, it was just hard concrete floor. The girl hid behind one of the columns when she heard the sound of a shot gun.

"Come on Nightshade, just make this easier for the both of us," he told her.

"Wow, I'm convinced. Do you also need help digging my grave?" she asked poking her head out of the column to look at Shellcase. He shot again aiming at her head, but the girl managed to hide at the last second. "Is that's a no?" she asked finally jumping out from behind her cover and shooting at Shellcase right in the shoulder forcing him to let go of his gun. To her surprise, Shellcase pulled out a grenade from his jacket and threw it right at her collapsing the two columns she was standing between taking the roof down with them.

When the dust cleared, Shellcase walked up to the debris holding his shotgun, ready to shoot at anything that moved, but when that didn't happen, he pushed away a piece of roof with his foot. "Well this is kind of disappointing," he said when he saw Nightshade laying face down on the ground surrounded by a small pool of blood. He aimed his shotgun at her, but she lifted her hand and blue flames surrounded his shotgun, melting it; Shellcase let go of it when the melted gun first touched his skin.

"I get that a lot," Nightshade got up from the ground and surrounded Shellcase in a blue-fire circle that kept him in place while also allowing Nightshade some room to recover. She started closing the circle around him when she felt a sharp pain in her back and a strong push that sent her against the wall. Nightshade looked back to see Whip standing behind her, her leather weapon in hand and ready to strike again. "I had forgotten about you," she said, pushing herself away from the wall at the same time as she reached down for a knife. The girl threw it at Whip, but she hit it and sent it away before it could reach her.

"You're going to need something better," said Whip, hitting Nightshade in the leg and pulling her towards her where she pressed down her neck with her heel, "way better." Nightshade grabbed the woman's leg as soon as she felt the heel was starting to penetrate her skin and lit her leg on fire just enough to force her away.

"Something like that?" she asked, getting up from the ground and reaching for her neck to wipe off some of the blood. The woman wrapped her whip around Nightshade's arm, but before she could pull it, Nightshade did it first and drew Whip towards her, disarming her. Whip struggled to get her weapon back, but Nightshade ended up pushing her to the ground and wrapping her whip around the woman's neck. "Really, it's as if they told you nothing about me before sending you here."

Nightshade held Whip on the ground with her foot while the woman struggled for air. The girl tightened the whip around her neck until the woman finally stopped struggling and went limp. Nightshade let go of the whip and relaxed for a moment only to feel the pain of a bullet entering her back. Shit, she thought. She had completely forgotten about Shellcase. Bleeding, she fell to the floor and crawled her way towards the nearest wall feeling Shellcase right behind her. He reached to grab her shoulder, but Nightshade turned around and punched him in the face. After that she barely gave him some space to counterattack, it was kick after kick, punch after punch until Nightshade threw a round-house kick knocking him to the ground, she sat on top of him and kept throwing punches. Finally, Shellcase found some room to stab her with the knife Whip had thrown away, it caused her to spit out some blood onto his mask, but the man didn't even flinch.

He pushed her away and her back hit the wall, she lifted up her gaze to see Shellcase walking her way with a smug look on his face. "They told me enough." Nightshade reached down for her gun, she tried using her last three bullets on him, but the man just dodged every single one of them.

"Figures," she said throwing away her gun. This guy was seriously trying to kill her, and since she couldn't harm him the outcome was obvious. Shellcase lifted her up by the arm, so the girl lit her arm on fire, managing to burn his hand and forcing him to throw her against the wall. On the ground, Nightshade stretched out her hand and created a fire that spread to where he was standing, Shellcase moved away from the fire but it just followed him, slowly getting a blue hue until it completely exploded into a wildfire. Nightshade was too injured to notice Shellcase showing up behind her, the man kicked her in the stomach all the way to the window that looked over to the street.

The girl was now lying face down on the ground trying not to look out the window. Shellcase walked closer to her and kicked her on the side again and again hoping to hear the girl's painful groan. He stopped hitting Nightshade and finally took out his gun and aimed it at Nightshade. "You could have made this so much easier on the both of us," he loaded the gun slowly, letting Nightshade hear every single click that was soon muffled by her agonizing scream as he shot her in the back one more time. Shellcase started walking away when he felt a hand grab his ankle. He turned around and looked down at Nightshade, she was breathing slower and her grip was weak.

"It's not over yet," she said in between pants. Shellcase released a mocking laughter as he kicked her hand away from him and stepped on it.

"I think you're in no condition to say that," he said shooting her one more time before disappearing into the darkness. Nightshade clutched the fist that was once holding Shellcase and took a few deep breaths, she could feel her consciousness slipping away as every drop of blood left her body, but a few seconds later, a yellow blur appeared before her. It was Kid Flash, he was initially taken back by the scene, blood was everywhere, and Nightshade had her arm stretched out in front of her, not to mention the dead woman on the other side of the room. He looked around before leaning down next to her.

"Hey, hey I'm here," he said, "let's get you out of this place," he tried picking her up but the moment he touched her, she let out a painful scream. "Okay, this will hurt…a lot," he said before quickly picking her up in his arms. He placed her arms around his neck and started to run towards the cave. "Sorry. Sorry," he apologized over and over as every move he made hurt her. "Just think of this as ripping a Band-Aid, quick and painless,"

"What are you doing here?" she asked, panting. Kid Flash ignored her question as he tried to go faster. "KF, I don't think this is going to work," her grip on his shoulder was loosening as she spoke. Kid Flash kept going, they were only a couple of minutes away from the cave, and he knew he could make it in time.

"So? What do you want me to do? Leave you here to die? No way. I delivered a heart under worse conditions, I'm sure you'll be fine…you have to be," he said pulling her close to his chest staining his suit with her blood as he felt her grip tightening around his neck. "Besides, you're the only one that laughs at my jokes," he said.

"Right." He could fell the muscles of her cheeks tense up against his face and he just knew that had pulled a smile out of her.

"Did we just have a moment?" he asked. Nightshade let out a soft and weak laugh.

"Not even close," she said with a trembling voice. He smiled at her, just a few more minutes he thought trying to pick up the pace. Kid Flash looked down at the girl, she was shivering. Actually, she had been shivering for quite some time, but he could already see the cave, so he took a short cut through the water. Suddenly her grip loosened completely, and her arms fell to her sides, she was unconscious, but her heart rate was rapidly decreasing.

"No, no! Jade, don't do this to me. Dammit!" he said just before entering the cave where the team was waiting for them along with Batman, Huntress and surprisingly, Black Canary. Kid Flash took her directly to the infirmary and laid her on the bed, a few seconds later Batman walked inside. He turned around to see the team standing outside the room trying to get inside but Huntress and Black Canary kept them out to make way for Doctor Leslie Thompkins.

"What the hell happened?" they heard Dr. Thompkins ask just before the door closed. The team moved away from the door and into the living room, no one said a word until Kid Flash walked in and they saw his blood-stained suit for the first time.

"Oh my god," said Miss Martian covering her mouth with both hands trying to hide her shock. Kid Flash looked down at his suit, he hadn't realized how bad it was up until that moment. The front part of his suit was completely covered in her blood, it was much more than just a small stain. He wanted to take it off, but there was nothing he could change into and waking around half naked wasn't an option, so he simply sat down next to Artemis and slid down. "That's a lot of blood for just one person, how was she?" she asked looking at Kid Flash

"Unconscious. She took quite a beating," he answered.

"Was she shot?" asked Lance. Kid Flash nodded.

"Where did he shoot her?" asked Rocket holding Skye as she cried.

"In the back, somewhere around the waist, and in her stomach," he explained.

"Wally, how did you know where she was?" asked Artemis, running her hand down his back. No one had asked, but Kid Flash had suddenly run out of the cave saying that he knew where Nightshade was. Before Kid Flash could answer, they heard some footsteps making their way towards them. The team looked up to see no one other Richard Grayson in a black suit that had a blue bird symbol in the chest, he had ditched the cape, but had kept his utility belt and added two escrima sticks that hung from his back.

"Grayson," said Robin, staring directly at the symbol on his chest.

"It's Nightwing now. How's Jade?" he asked. The team didn't answer, they knew nothing about the situation.

"What are you doing here?" asked Zatanna trying to change the topic, "I'm not complaining, just curious," suddenly everyone was looking at Dick waiting for an answer.

"He's the one that told me where Jade was," answered Kid Flash.


	37. Left Behind

Mount Justice- December 3rd- 7:32 A.M-

"How did you know where she was?" asked Aqualad looking up him, he had grown quite a lot since the last time they had seen him, he was even taller than Kid Flash now.

"I was in New York when I heard an explosion coming from some office building. When I dropped by, the place was on fire and Nightshade was already on the ground," he told them. The room went silent again except for Skye's muffled crying. A couple more hours went by before Leslie Thompkins walked out of the infirmary, as soon as they saw her the team stood up.

"Relax, she'll be fine. The bullets went through, but they didn't damage any vital organs, though she did lose a lot of blood, so we gave her a transfusion. If you want to see her, she is more or less conscious now," she said and walked away from them. The team slowly made their way towards the infirmary, they arrived just in time to see Batman who had been joined by Red Tornado exiting the room. Batman's eyes met Nightwing's, but they didn't say anything, they just nodded and walked past each other. Huntress and Black Canary were inside with Nightshade when the team walked in. The room started to feel a little cramped, so Black Canary walked out followed by Huntress to give them some space.

"You're not going inside?" asked Huntress when she saw Nightwing outside the infirmary. Though she was thrown off by the new suit, she could still recognize him.

"Later," he said staring blankly at the door, he wasn't sure he wanted to see Nightshade, it had been so long. Huntress nodded and walked away from him following the other leaguers to the main room. After a while of staring at the closed door, he was startled when the others started getting out of the room, they all left except for Lance who stayed right next to the now sleeping girl, clutching her hand tightly. After seeing that, Nightwing decided it was better to just walk away, so he headed towards the main room.

Nightwing was met with relieved faces and a relaxed atmosphere; Zatanna was the first one to notice he had walked into the room and those relieved faces turned into light smiles. "Is this you coming back to the team?" asked Zatanna.

"Well, I did miss you guys," Nightwing answered. "I would love to come back if you'll let me," he told them.

"Of course, man!" said Kid Flash. "I knew you'd be back." Kid Flash got up to hug him, but then remembered his suit was covered in Nightshade's blood so he sat back down next to Artemis. During the next hour, Nightwing caught up with the team, he told them how he had been living in Bludhaven and about how he came around with the new identity. Their talk was finally interrupted by Lance walking into the room, a depressed look on his face.

"I just… I guess I just want to thank you for looking after us," he told the team. "Who knows what would have happened if you hadn't been following us."

"We're here to help, it is about time the three of you started to realize that," Aqualad answered.

"Yeah," he answered and walked back to the room he had been staying in, Skye right behind him as always.

Mount Justice- December 15th- 4:42 P.M-

Nightshade had been steadily recovering from her injuries, at least that was what Dr. Thompkings said every time someone asked. A few hours after checking with Dr. Thompkings, Nightwing ran into Robin, who seemed to be waiting for him in the training room.

"Wanna spar?" the kid asked. "I bet I can kick your ass," he told him, going after him when Nightwing ignored him.

"Not today, Robin," he answered.

"Scared you'll lose?" the kid asked. Nightwing turned around and grabbed the kid by the collar lifting him up from the ground.

"Not today kid," he repeated one more time before letting go of him. Robin was about to say something when they saw Lance and Skye walking out with their luggage. "What are you doing?" asked Nightwing putting a hand on his chest to stop him.

Lance looked down at the hand on his chest and then back at Nightwing. "We're leaving, and I'm taking Nightshade with me," he simply said and kept walking just to be stopped again, this time by Robin.

"Why don't you let her rest, and then you can take her anywhere you want," he said. Their voices had gotten the attention from the rest of the team who were now gathered in the hall.

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Nightshade leaning against the door frame. "I'm going to stay here for a while and you two will be leaving with the Justice League," she said crossing her arms over her chest. The team turned around to look at her, she was wearing black sweatpants and a large black hoodie that covered her body. Lance walked towards her with Skye right behind him and stared down at the girl.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, clearly angry at her.

"I see you still went with the bird theme, huh Bird Boy? That's good, consistency is important," Nightshade ignored Lance's question and directed her gaze towards Nightwing. Lance grabbed her side to get her attention, not realizing he was touching a still open wound. Nightshade and Dr. Thompkings had been hiding the fact that her wounds were closing really, really slowly. In fact, they weren't sure they were healing at all. Dr. Thompkings would come every morning to change her bandages and then Nightshade would burn the old, bloody ones to keep it a secret form the others.

"Jade, answer me," Lance told her.

"You two are leaving, the League will relocate you to a safer place, somewhere they can't find you," she said, holding a stern look across her face.

"What if we don't want to?" asked Skye getting angry at Nightshade.

"I'm not asking you. You two are moving out and there is absolutely nothing you can say or do that would make me change my mind!" she raised her voice, "and honestly I don't give a damn what you think. You fucking do what I tell you to do, that's all you've ever been good for!" by the end she was yelling at them. Finally, Nightshade realized where she was and backed away from them.

"Bullshit! they are after you, I won't leave you here!" he said. Nightshade glanced at the team and then back at him.

"I don't need that, I don't need you two. I never needed Camille either, I just needed a group of idiots angry enough to take down The Light. You proved really fucking useless to be honest," she told him.

"Jade, I know what you're trying to do and it's not going to work," said Lance. "We're not going to leave you." The room fell silent the moment Lance said that, and the only thing that was heard was Nightshade's heavy sigh.

"Why? Because you love me or something?" Guess what, I don't feel anything about the two of you. You were just good for sex, and your sister was an annoying crybaby –," Skye cut her off by slapping her across the face. Nightshade's hair fell on her face covering it completely and a heavy atmosphere filled the room. Without protesting anymore, the siblings walked away just in time to meet with Batman and Red Tornado. Nightshade didn't even look at them as they left the room.

"Jade!" Nightwing called after her when she walked away from them, but the girl just kept walking. He looked back at Lance and Skye only to find them gone, so he ran after Nightshade. "Jade!" he yelled once again when he found her in the hall on her way to the hangar. "What are you doing?" he asked grabbing her arm and forcing her to look at him.

"Leaving" she answered pulling her arm back.

"You know what I mean. Those two have chosen to stay by your side for god knows what reason. Don't push them away like that," he told her.

"I never asked for that," she said.

"No, and you probably didn't deserve it either, but they still did," he said.

"Grayson, I know you just came back, but this is none of your business," she told him and kept walking towards the hangar to get away from the team, and specially to get away from him.

Mount Justice- December 17th- 6:37 P.M-

Nightshade had quickly gotten accustomed to the cave and the rest of the team being around all the time. She had even asked Miss Martian for a short tour, and the day before she had Superboy, Aqualad and Rocket help her bring in her things which included boxes and boxes of dangerous weapons. It had only been two days since she sent the siblings away with the League and Nightshade seemed not to care about it, she was laying on the couch with a bag of chips next to her hand going through her phone.

Miss Martian and Superboy walked into the room to get something to eat and ended up stumbling upon the scene. They were about to tell her something when Black Canary walked in and pulled away the bag of chips from her hand.

"Get up," she ordered. Nightshade looked up from her phone and glared at the blonde woman who was looking down at her.

"I was wondering when you would show up," she said going back to her phone.

"Jade get up," she ordered one more time. "I spoke with Dr. Thompkings. Get. Up."

After hearing that, Nightshade got up from the couch and followed Black Canary deeper into the cave, giving the two onlookers a shrug. Just as the other two left, Zatanna came out from the hall already in her pajamas.

"Why is Black Canary dragging Nightshade into the medical bay?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I could read her mind and find out," Miss Martian answered.

"M'gann," Superboy cut in, "no mind reading unless it's absolutely necessary," he reminded her. The Martian lowered her hand from her temple and nodded in agreement. Zatanna didn't say anything, but things had been getting a little tense between Superboy and Miss Martian; she didn't know the reason, but they just weren't talking that much with each other. Zatanna rushed to the fridge before they could get to it, made herself a sandwhich and rushed away from the uncomfortable atmosphere.

"I should have known something was wrong when Dr. Death's toxin wouldn't leave your body," Zatanna heard Black Canary through the door when she was passing by the medical bay.

"Relax, it's just taking a little bit longer than usual," she heard Nightshade answering. "Can I put my shirt back on, all your staring is making me uncomfortable?" she asked.

"Jade, this is serious. What if your powers aren't permanent?"

"Then we'll find out when I die. Try to say something nice for my eulogy," she told her. Zatanna could hear her footsteps getting closer to the door so she ran away from the medical bay and towards her room. Nightshade opened the door thinking she had heard something, but when she looked there was no one outside.

"Just promise you'll be more careful," said Black Canary.

"Sure," she answered walking out of the room.

Mount Justice- December 20th- 4:00 P.M-

The team was gathered in the training room watching Black Canary and Nightwing sparing, so far, Black Canary was winning and Nightwing was having some trouble keeping up with her until he found an opening. Nightwing grabbed her arm and threw her over his head finally winning the match.

"Good job," Black Canary told him from the ground.

"Well it's not like I had been slacking off all this time," he answered offering his hand to help her up. In that moment, the team saw Nightshade rushing past the training room and right into the hangar.

"I'm going out!" she yelled while she ran.

"What the hell?" asked Artemis poking her head out right as the girl left.

"Okay, while Nightshade skips practice again, Kid Flash it's your turn. You'll go against Superboy," Black Canary told them and the two started sparing.

Tired, Nightwing walked up to Batgirl who was sitting in the back with her holographic computer out and her cowl down. He leaned down to look at what she was doing and saw her going over some files Nightshade had in her personal computer.

"Did you hack her?" Nightwing asked. Batgirl looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Of course you did. The question would be why?"

"Nightshade's been weird lately," Batgirl answered.

"No, she's always been like that,"

"You might be right, but ever since her encounter with Shellcase, she's been sneaking out and coming back late. At least that's what the cave's log is saying," she answered and showed him the log. Nightshade had exit the cave every day at four in the afternoon and didn't come back until 3 in the morning. Batgirl returned to looking at the other files in Nightshade's laptop; there were the usual useless things, TV shows and movies she had watched, but when she got deep enough, she found an alert system for Shellcase and the most recent one had gone off at the warehouse where they had fought Wotan. "She found him," Batgirl muttered under her breath forcing Nightwing to lean in and look at the screen.

"We're leaving," said Nightwing getting Rocket, Miss Martian and Aqualad to go with him and Batgirl.

By the time the team had noticed what she was doing, Nightshade had reached the warehouse. She had been fighting Shellcase for a while now and had finally cornered him.

"I thought I killed you, came back for more?" he asked Leaning back against the wall.

"You seem overly confident for someone who's about to have his throat slashed," Nightshade answered pulling out her sword and sticking it into the wall right next to his face.

"you couldn't beat me before, what makes you think that you'll be able to do it now?" he asked. Nightshade pulled out the sword from the wall.

"New found motivation, or maybe I don't like leaving things unfinished," she told him and went in to slash his throat, but the man moved, and she ended up creating a cut in his arm. Shellcase ran away from her deeper into the warehouse. "I really don't have time for this!" she yelled as she watched him running away. The girl blocked his path with a huge fire wall that forced him into the other room. After he went in, the fire extended through the room. "What happened to that smug attitude you had a few weeks ago?" Nightshade asked, watching the man running deeper into the room.

After it had been a while since Nightshade had last heard anything but the crackling fire, she killed the fire and started looking around the room trying to find Shellcase. "Come on…I know you're there, come out!" by the end of that sentence, her voice was lower, and her eyes and hair had turned a red blood color.

"Don't make me look for you," said Nightfall, crouching and placing her hands on the ground before closing her hand into a fist and yanking. Shellcase's body followed the movement her hand made and crashed against the opposite wall.

"What the hell are you?" he asked, panting.

"Didn't you say that they told you everything?" Nightfall said getting closer to him. The panicked look on his face grew with every step she took, but the girl seemed to enjoy every second of it. "Oh, did they forget to tell you about _me_?" she asked grabbing his face between her hands. The man shook his head while trying to get away from her, Nightfall's smile grew, and she finally let go of his face.

"If you're going to kill me, do it now!" he yelled. Nightfall raised her left hand and two shadow creatures popped out from the ground, picked him up and held him by the arms.

"No, no. I don't work like that. Unlike Nightshade, I enjoy a little bit of torture before killing my victims," she told him. "I'm sure you understand." Nightfall took out a knife and stabbed the man in the leg, then she pulled out another one and stabbed him in the arm. Every single one of his screams made her smile grow wider. Nightfall moved her hand again and the shadows started pulling form Shellcase's arms until the wound from the knife started getting larger.

"Stop! Please stop!" he pleaded, but Nightfall wasn't listening, she had gotten out her sword and was getting it ready. "What are you going to do?" he asked in between pants and screams, but she didn't answer, instead she slashed his torso just enough for him to remain alive while it hurt as much as possible. Shellcase started vomiting blood as his inside were exposed to a smirking Nightfall.

"Well this turned out to be better than I thought!" she said leaning against the wall. It was in that moment that Aqualad, Nightwing, Rocket, Batgirl and Miss Martian stormed into the warehouse. The five of them froze the moment they saw the bloody scene right in front of them. "You took longer than expected, I was forced to improvise," Nightfall told them commanding a third shadow to emerge from the ground and hold Shellcase's head between its palms.

"No!" Aqualad yelled just as Nightfall made the shadow twist his head, effectively cracking his neck.

"Oops," said Nightfall right as the body fell in front her. Rocket flew towards her and pinned her against the wall, but the girl created a portal behind her and went inside only to reappear behind Rocket and kick her into the wall. Before the other four could do anything, Nightshade regained control of their body.

"Fucking coward," Nightshade muttered before looking back towards Rocket and offering her hand to help her up.

"Nightshade?" asked Miss Martian. The girl turned around to look at them and that was when the pungent smell of blood reached her nose. She directed her gaze to the bloody body of Shellcase lying on the ground with his guts exposed and his neck completely broken.

"I think Nightfall went a bit overboard with this one," she said kicking the corpse on the side. She then stepped over the body and walked out of the room.

"Is it alright to be a little worried about that reaction?" Rocket asked and the other three shook their heads.

"I'll see if I can talk to her," said Nightwing going after her.

"I will inform Batman that Shellcase has died," said Aqualad.

"At least one of you is doing something useful," said Rocket looking back at the bloody scene one more time before following the others.


	38. Buzzed

Mount Justice- December 23rd- 4:00 P.M-

"Have you ever thought that you might be in denial?" Black Canary sat down in front of Nightshade who was just staring back at her trying to figure out if it was a joke or not, but Black Canary kept talking about what had happened, so she figured it wasn't a joke. "Are you going to do that every time I ask you a personal question?" she asked.

"Would you like me to just tell you that you're wrong?"

"Jade. You tortured and killed a man just a few days ago. You have to be feeling something," she said.

"Okay. First of all, I didn't kill Shellcase, I mean I wanted to, but Nightfall was the one that did it. Also, it's not the first time either one of us kills someone," Nightshade reminded her, while she put her legs over the arm of the chair.

"I know you think you're not responsible for what Nightfall does, but can you seriously tell me you have absolutely no control over her actions?" Black Canary leaned forward.

"No. I think you forgot that I'm just a guest in this body, I can fight off Nightfall's attempts at taking over, but once she does I'm just a powerless spectator. Sometimes I can't even remember what she did," Nightshade told her.

"Do you think I could talk to Nightfall then?" Black Canary asked. She had already grasped the fact that Nightshade had nothing to do with the Justice League murders, but if she could just talk to Nightfall, no. She didn't want to talk, she wanted to get her revenge on Nightfall. While she was lost in her thoughts, she was pulled back by the sound of Nightshade's laughter.

"Sorry, there's laughter in my head," she answered getting up from the chair. "Maybe solve your own issues before trying to meddle into mine," she told Black Canary before closing the door behind her to see the team was gathered outside. She gave them a slight nod before walking away towards her room.

Mount Justice- January 14th 2013- 2:00 P.M-

A few more weeks had passed since Nightshade's talk with Black Canary. She seemed to be doing well completely ignoring the problem, but the team was still worried about her, which is why when they heard a loud crash coming from Nightshade's room, they rushed to her room and opened the door to see Nightshade aiming a knife at a green fly in her room.

"Wait!" yelled Miss Martian managing to stop the knife before it hit the fly that then made its way towards her and took the shape of a green monkey-boy that couldn't have been older than nine.

"What the fuck?" asked Nightshade. The kid hid behind Miss Martian when Nightshade got closer. "Kid, I almost killed you," she said.

"This is Garfield Logan, he's…..my little brother," Miss Martian told everyone that was just as confused as Nightshade, everyone but Superboy.

"Wait a minute, isn't he the kid from Qurac?" asked Nightwing, "what happened to his mom?" Superboy and Miss Martian looked at each other, thinking about whether they should tell them or not.

"Remember that blood transfusion M'gann gave him back in Qurac, it seems her shapeshifting powers were transferred to him," Superboy answered. When he ignored the question about Garfield's mother, the other just assumed the worst and didn't press the issue any further. Nightshade leaned down to reach for something under her bed and pulled out a bag of candies. She took one out and handed the rest of the bag to the kid who finally came out from behind Miss Martian to take it.

"What?" she asked when she saw their shocked faces, "I can be nice every once in a while. Is it that hard to believe?" she asked, and the others nodded.

"Hey, looks like Jade finally found someone who matches her mental age," the team looked back to see Rocket standing in the doorway. She had arrived from a mission with Icon just in time to witness Nightshade's caring side.

"Don't make me hit you," she answered.

"Can you even reach my face?" asked Rocket taunting her. The girl had stopped growing at 5'2 making her the shortest team member.

"You know damn well I can," answered Nightshade pushing past the team. The two of them kept yelling insults at each other, so Miss Martian covered Garfield's ears and pulled him out of the room.

"Come on Gar, you don't need to see this," she told him leaving with the rest of the team.

"Are they going to fight?" he asked, looking back at the pair.

"Nah. At this point, that's just a greeting for them. They insult each other for a while and then move on as if nothing happened," Kid Flash explained. By the time Garfield looked back again, the two of them were laughing together. As they walked back to the lounge, Nightwing and Aqualad stopped Superboy and pulled him into the trophy room for some privacy.

"What happened to the kid's mother?" asked Nightwing as soon as the door closed.

"Queen Bee killed her, she made her drive off a cliff," Superboy answered. "He's been better this last few months though," he continued without thinking about what he was telling the other two.

"Months? How long has he been living in the cave without our knowledge?" Aqualad asked Superboy raising one eyebrow at him. Superboy's answer was interrupted when Kid Flash ran into the room with half a candy bar in his hand.

"Batman's here," he told them and the four of them walked out to see Batman staring down at Garfield before redirecting his gaze towards Nightwing, but without saying anything, he just started talking about the mission.

"We got some information that Queen Bee will be attending the Wayne Benefit Gala tomorrow. There will be many diplomats attending, chances are that Queen Bee will try something,"

"Okay….and you want us to do what?" Asked Artemis.

"You'll be going undercover into the gala, either as guests or part of the staff," Batman informed them. "Batgirl, Kid Flash and Rocket, you'll be part of the waiting staff. Superboy, Miss Martian, you two will stay in the kitchen and out of Queen Bee's sight. Artemis and Aqualad, you will work at the door. Zatanna, Nightwing and Robin, the three of you will be among the guests," he finished.

"What about Nightshade?" Zatanna asked.

"Jade Collins is the face of the new scholarship program the benefit gala is promoting, she's already on the guest list," said Batman. After he said that, the room exploded with laughter forcing the girl to sink deeper into the couch, a laughter that was only silenced when Batman cleared his throat. "We will meet up early tomorrow morning to discuss the rest of the plan, for now get some rest." After Batman left and the guys had headed towards the training room, Nightshade got up from the couch and started walking out of the room.

"You're not going to bed, right?" Rocket asked.

"Of course not," she answered.

"Where are you going?" Batgirl asked.

"Out," she answered dangling the keys to her bike from her finger. Once Nightshade was out of sight and earshot, the girls gathered around in the lounge.

"Something's definitely wrong," said Rocket.

"Maybe she's nervous about the Queen Bee thing?" Artemis tried to guess.

"Could it have something to do with the fact that her wounds aren't healing as fast as they used to?" Zatanna thought out loud.

"What did you just say?" Miss Martian asked.

"I heard Nightshade and Black Canary talking about it the other day. Black Canary sounded concerned," Zatanna explained.

"Why wouldn't she tell us?" Rocket asked.

"Why would she? Nightshade never tells us anything about herself. Think about it, everything we've learned about her has come from outside sources. She never talks about herself and every time we find out something, she either denies it or avoids it," Artemis reminded them.

"I want to go tomorrow," their talk was interrupted by Garfield who was standing in the kitchen staring at them.

"Garfield, I don't think that's a good idea," Miss Martian told him, crouching down to match his eye level. "You're not ready to see Queen Bee, but if you want we can talk to Batman and take you along for a different mission?" she offered.

"I want to go on this one," he kept insisting.

"Gar…not this one," she finished talking.

Wayne Manor- 8:00 P.M-

"Master Grayson, it truly has been a long time since I last saw you," Alfred greeted him. Dick went in for a hug as soon as the man opened the door. His hug was returned with a tight embrace and a warm smile as the now sixteen-year-old teen stood in front of him.

"It really has been a while, Alfred. Is Bruce around? I need to talk to him," he asked. The old man pointed to the ground, knowing he would understand exactly where he could find Bruce Wayne. "Got it," he said and rushed off to the Batcave. He opened the door to see Bruce and Jason right in front of the computer, going over the plan for tomorrow's gala. Dick watched them from the top of the stairs, in the months he had been gone, Bruce had taken it upon himself to redecorate the Batcave, mainly he set up a pedestal where he put his old costume on a mannequin. A little unsettling, he thought walking down the stairs.

"Can I have a second?" he asked. Bruce and Jason turned around to look at him. "Alone," he cleared up.

"Sure. Jason, go ask Alfred about dinner," he told him.

"Why?" he asked hoping to stay.

"Go," Bruce told him one more time before the kid ran up the stairs and out of the cave. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"First of all, good to see you too. I've been doing pretty well on my own in case you wanted to know," Dick told him.

"I know. Bludhaven's crime rate has lower in the past couple of months," he answered showing him a graph in the screen. Of course he knew where he was this whole time.

"Okay, leaving the stalking aside, why are we taking Robin on this mission?" he asked.

"He's part of the team," Bruce answered.

"Are you crazy? He is just a kid, I'm not babysitting," Dick told Bruce.

"You will not be babysitting, he knows more than enough," said Bruce, "as I'm sure you know," he said. That last bit angered Dick enough to make him storm out of the cave passing Alfred in the kitchen with Jason.

"You will not be staying for dinner Master Grayson?" Alfred asked wondering if he should put the extra plate or not.

"No thank you Alfred, I'll leave the kid and Jason to you," he said before storming out.

Gotham City- January 25th- 9:34 P.M-

The team had settled in their places, Artemis and Kaldur put on their disguises and started welcoming the guests as they came. They watched all the snobby rich people waltz into the place that had been decorated with gold accents, expensive flowers and a huge chandelier diamond hanging from the ceiling.

"Just how much money does this Wayne guy have?" Artemis muttered as she received a coat from a tall slender woman with short hair the color of coal that contrasted nicely with her deep green eyes. The woman snickered when she heard Artemis' remarks, but kept walking when the next snob arrived.

"She looks familiar," Auqalad said, turning his head to look back at the woman just as she turned the corner. He went back to receiving the guests the moment he heard Nightwing's voice, or more like Richard Grayson's voice. He had a nice expensive suit on with a black bow tie that fit him just right, he had even turned a few heads on his way up to them. Their smiles dropped when they also saw Jason Todd walking right behind him in a dark blue suit.

"Is she here yet?" Dick asked trying to look inside the hall.

"Who? Queen Bee or Jade?" Artemis asked with a smirk on her face. Kaldur glanced in his direction and a small smile showed up on his face, soon the two of them were giving him their best mocking smiles.

"I—I," he cleared his throat, "Queen Bee of course," he told them.

"No, we're still waiting for her," Kaldur answered. "And Jade should be here soon," The smirk was back on their faces as Dick walked by the two of them. The two of them were brought by to reality by the sudden sound of camera flashes of reporters flocking at the bottom of the stairs. Bruce Wayne stepped out of the black Aston Martin that had pulled up right in front of the venue, he fixed his bow tie just as the flashing of the cameras started, he then turned around and offered his hand to a supermodel that walked with him down the black carpet that lead to where Artemis and Kaldur stood.

"Mr. Wayne! How do you respond to the claims that this is just a publicity stunt for Wayne Industries?" one of the reporters yelled as he walked by.

"I would say they are correct, but this is also about helping more kids in Gotham get a good education," he answered, his smile would be the perfect picture to go with that statement. After answering a few more questions, he and the woman kept walking and finally reached the other two teens waiting for them. The woman handed her coat over to Kaldur and winked at him before returning to Bruce's arm who had merely giving them a glance. The reporters held their pose when another black car pulled up, out of the car came New York City Mayor Arthur Hall followed by Jade Collins. She stepped out in a long A-line black dress with long sleeves and an open back, the two of them walked the carpet, Jade ignored the flashes and question, leaving Mayor Hall to answer all of them.

"Nice dress," Artemis told her as she arrived alone at the door.

"Thanks, it has pockets," Jade told her while she waited for Hall. She pulled her hands up to her hair and fixed her updo. "Is she here yet?" Jade asked once Mayor Hall was close enough.

"Not yet," Kaldur answered just as the man arrived at the door.

"Thank you for leaving me alone back there," he told her gabbing her arm and walking her inside.

"Well, you looked so pleased in front of the cameras," they heard her answer just as the two turned the corner to enter the elevator that lead to the gala. "Did it had to be on the thirtieth floor?" Jade mumbled as the two of them exit the elevator. The inside was even fancier than the ground floor, the live music and the perfectly organized tables around the floor gave the appearance of a hall inside a castle. Jade didn't have much time to appreciate it, since the moment they set foot into the room, Mayor Hall pulled Jade over to greet Bruce Wayne.

"Mister Wayne, I would like to thank you again for supporting our program and helping it expand to Gotham City," he said as the two of them shook hands.

"Well I don't always have time to do a lot of things for Gotham, is nice to be able to give back to my city," he answered while Jade just mouthed 'wow' in the background. "Miss Collins, glad you could join us tonight," he finally acknowledged her.

"Well, I was persuaded," she answered glancing at Arthur Hall. After some passive aggressive comments on both sides, Jade managed to walk away from the conversation when she spotted Raquel walking around with a tray full of alcoholic drinks. Before she could reach her destination, Jade pulled her over to the side where no one was watching, grabbed a glass and gulped it down.

"That was a Mojito," Raquel told her examining the girl from head to toe.

"I know, I needed it," she answered.

"You've been here for fifteen minutes. Why do you need a drink already? also you're a minor you shouldn't be drinking alcohol," she told her taking away the glass from her hand.

"Sixteen-year-olds are allowed to drink in Germany," Jade told her.

"We're not in Germany," Raquel was about to walk away when she saw Dick walking up to them with a worried look on his face. "What happened?" she asked, he hadn't seen the two of them there, so when he noticed them his face brightened up a little.

"Nothing. She's late," he told them.

"Yeah, the speech is about to start, and the Qurac delegates are already here," said Jade popping her head into the room to look at the four men chatting with Gotham's police commissioner. Dick had just noticed Jade was there, it had taken him a while to recognize her, but when he did he couldn't stop staring.

"You look great," he told her getting her attention. "I mean, that dress is great, not like that's it…I—I'm gonna go check on…Wally," he said before hurrying away from them.

"What just happened?" Raquel asked looking back at Jade who shrugged and grabbed another glass. She chugged it before Raquel could take it away from her.

Dick beat himself up mentally while he walked over to Wally who was serving a table. After he was done, he turned around to see his friend with a drained look on his face. "What happened?" he asked walking with him to the kitchen. After Dick told him, Wally couldn't help but laugh, at his friend who was now sitting in the kitchen along with Conner and M'gann. "God, you're so stupid," he told him while Conner gave him an uplifting pat in the back. While the kept talking, they heard some commotion outside, so Wally and Dick walked out of the kitchen in time to see Bruce Wayne's speech starting with Mayor Hall and Jade standing right next to him.

"Is she really Nightshade?" Jason Todd asked Dick while looking up at the platform, Dick and Wally nodded. "I guess she cleans up nicely," he said. After the speech was over and the crowd clapped, the three of them got down from the platform, Hall walked directly to talk to the big shot business owners while Jade and Bruce went for the buffet where Dick and Jason met with them.

"No sign of Queen Bee?" Bruce asked. The other three shook their heads. "Stay vigilant. She might be planning something. That's a nice dress," he told them and walked away from the table.

"Thanks, it has pockets," she told him loud enough for him to hear even after he had walked away. Zatanna had finally shaken off some guys that were trying to flirt with her and walked up to the three of them, her long gray dress dragging behind her.

"She's still not here," Zatanna told them.

"We know. So, you figure out a plan while I go hide in the bathroom for the rest of the night," she said only to be stopped by Zatanna.

"No way, you're not the only one uncomfortable here. You're staying," she said. "Have you been drinking?" she asked when the smell of alcohol reached her nose.

"No…" Jade told them. Dick pulled her away from Zatanna and leaned in closer to her mouth while Jason looked away.

"How many did you drink?" he asked smelling her breath.

"two…maybe four," she answered. In that moment they heard a loud scream coming from the women's bathroom and what followed was a group of women running out of the bathroom. Sportsmaster had emerged from the bathroom swinging his hammer, which consisted of a large concrete ball attached to a chain.

"Z, Robin. Get the guest out of here," Nightwing told them as he let go of Nightshade and ran over to where Barbara, Wally and Raquel were fighting Sportsmaster. _**"Artemis, your family is here. Are you sure Queen Bee didn't come in?"**_ he asked over the comm.

" _ **What?!"**_ she asked looking at Kaldur. _**"We're sure, she didn't come through this door. If she's there, she must have come through somewhere else,"**_ she explained.

" _ **We will be right there,"**_ Kaldur told Dick. The two of them headed inside the building and after changing into their suits, ran towards the elevator only to find that it wasn't working. _**"The elevators are not functional,"**_ Aqualad told him.

" _ **Yeah, we noticed,"**_ he answered, looking out of the room where the guests along with Zatanna and Jason had stopped in front of the elevators. "Rocket! Find a way to get the guests down. Robin, get back in here," he yelled. Dick pulled out his computer to check the security cameras, but they were all static, and they had been for a while now.

Nightshade sneaking out of the room in the middle of the chaos. She managed to get into the kitchen and walk all the way to the storage room. "Where the hell is that thing?" she asked out loud when she didn't find what she was looking for.

"You mean this thing?" Jade heard a woman's voice coming from the darkened corner of the room, so she walked slightly closer to make out who it was.

"I was forgetting you come as a package deal," she said as soon as she spotted Cheshire holding the black bag she had hidden in the kitchen, the bag that just happened to contain her weapons.

"You have a lot of cool toys in here," Cheshire told her as she pulled out a shotgun from the bag. Dick was helping one of the remaining guests up from the ground when the door to the kitchen was burst open and Jade came out tripping over her dress.

"What is she doing?" asked Robin, he started to run over to help, but as soon as he took a step forward, he turned around and hit Nightwing in the back.

"What the hell Jason?" He asked turning around to look at the kid who was ready to fight him. "Are you alright?" He asked when he didn't seem to respond in any way. Nightwing quickly looked around the room trying to fin Queen Bee somewhere among the crowd, but he couldn't find her anywhere. Robin jumped on top of him and pulled him to the ground where he tried to punch him in the face, but Nightwing kept moving his face away from his fists.

While this was going on, Miss Martian, Superboy, Batgirl, Zatanna and Kid Flash had been keeping Sportsmaster busy enough for him to stay away from the rest of the guests while Rocket could get them down. Sportsmaster took a swing at Superboy hitting him with his hammer forcing him to crash against Kid Flash.

"This is not going to work," Zatanna told Miss Martian as she tried to chain down Sportsmaster.

"Do you have a better idea?" Miss Martian asked before she was struck by Sportsmaster's hammer. She got up from the ground and used her powers to send him flying across the room where he hit the glass window creating a small crack before sliding down.

"That's a good start," Batgirl told her following Miss Martian to where Sportsmaster was, but she was stopped by Superboy who grabbed her cape and pulled her back into the wall. "What are you doing?" She asked looking at the blank stare on his face. "No way…" she said once she realized what was going on. Zatanna looked back at Batgirl and Superboy and when she was about to run over to help, she was interrupted by Kid Flash. He grabbed her and ran with her towards the window where he pushed her in an attempt to knock her out. Zatanna got up from the ground and cast a spell that tied Kid Flash to the floor.

"I don't want to hurt you KF," she told him, but he didn't seem to care, he just phased out of the restraints and ran up to Zatanna, but she build a magical wall right before he could reach her, forcing him to crash directly into it. He tried to get up to attack her, but a black leather whip was wrapped around his ankles keeping him on the ground. Zatanna directed her gaze towards the woman that stood right in front of Kid Flash, her leather suit tightly hugging her slender frame contrasting with Batman's large figure the stood out now that he was standing next to her.

Jade caught their attention while she was still dodging Cheshire's shots. Cheshire threw a knife at her and pinned her arm to the wall to keep her in the same place so she could have a clear shot. Jade found herself staring down the gun's barrel, but before Cheshire could fire the gun, it was taken from her hand by a long leather whip.

"Please don't be who I think it is," Jade said turning her head to look over at no one other than Catwoman and Batman standing on the side of the room. "Crap," she said before pulling out the knife from her arm and throwing it back at Cheshire managing to stab her in the thigh.

"I was expecting a thank you," Catwoman told her while giving her a sly smile. Their encounter was interrupted when Superboy, who had managed to knock out Batgirl, attacked Catwoman bringing her down to the ground. The woman pulled out her whip and wrapped it around his neck using it to pull him back and away from her. Once she was up, she released him and pushed her heel on his back to keep him on the ground. Superboy pushed against her heel and easily got back up; he grabbed her arm and pinned her to the wall ready to punch her in the face when he fell to his knees panting. Superboy turned around to see Batman holding open a black box with a tiny piece of kryptonite inside. "Go to sleep, kid," Catwoman told him before kicking him in the face knocking him out.

"You alright?" Batman asked placing the box closer to Superboy.

"A little bit late on that rescue," she answered.

"You seemed to be handling it well on your own," he told her. "I didn't want to interrupt."

"Really not the time or place to be flirting," Jade told them jumping behind one of the tables to use it as shield to block the bullets Cheshire was firing at her. Catwoman kicked the gun she had taken from Cheshire towards Jade allowing the girl to grab it and fire back at Cheshire. One of the bullets hit the woman in the arm, but instead of holding her back, she just switched hands and continued firing. "You have crappy aim" Nightshade told her. Angered, Cheshire threw the gun away and pulled out her Kunai, she charged towards the girl only to have her move away from the blades until she managed to stick one in her shoulder. Cheshire got the other Kunai ready, but Nightwing pulled her out of the way; his cold hand touched her bareback causing a chill to run up her spine.

"What about your powers, remember those?" He asked her. Jade stretched out her hand and fire materialized right in front of Cheshire stopping the woman from getting any closer to them.

"It's not as fun," she answered pushing him away from her only to have Kid Flash push her all the way against the large glass window creating a bigger crack. Meanwhile, Nightwing had been pushed down by Jason keeping him from helping Jade. Batman and Catwoman had their hands full with Cheshire and Batgirl, Zatanna and Miss Martian were trying to knock out Sportsmaster. Zatanna had managed to cast a spell that pinned froze the lower half of Sportsmaster when Miss Martian spotted a familiar face making her way out of the room.

"She's here," the girl muttered as right before flying out of the room. She stopped right in front of a blonde-haired woman with dark skin. The woman looked at her from head to toe before removing the blonde wig. "Queen Bee," Miss Martian said.

"Could you move out of the way, I have some important matters to attend to," she told her, but Miss Martian ignored her and used her powers to push the woman all the way to the other side of the hall. "Why so angry? Is this about that boys' mother? Let me tell you I would gladly do it again," she said. Miss Martian's eyes started glowing green, she lifted one of the marble stands from the corner and was about to flung it at her when Artemis stopped her.

"Miss Martian, no!" she yelled bringing Miss Martian Back to her senses. Queen Bee smiled when she saw the two of them together. "It's not worth it," Artemis said aiming her arrow at the woman she was about to shoot when Superboy crashed through the wall taking Artemis with him. Miss Martian glanced at Queen Bee before going after the two. She was about to leave when she felt a light tap on her shoulder, the woman turned around to receive a punch right across her face.

"This brings back memories," Nightshade told her shaking her hand to ease the pain on her knuckles.

"Nightshade," Queen Bee said rubbing her face with her hand. "I thought you wouldn't be bothering me today," she told her.

"I couldn't let that happen, you came all the way here after all," she answered.

"Not for you, of course," the woman snarled back.

"I know, but still trying to leave without having even said hello just seems rude," Nightshade pulled out her sword, but Queen Bee just took a step back and watched Superboy return with an unconscious Artemis and throw her at Nightshade sending both girls flying across the room and into the window. Nightshade looked back at the large crack that the hits had created. Superboy launched himself at them only to be stopped by Miss Martian. While Miss Martian kept Superboy busy, Nightshade pushed Artemis away from her and was getting up when she felt a sharp pain on her back. She turned around to see Cheshire holding just one of her Kunai. The girl reached back and pulled out the other blade from her back.

"Cheap shot," Nightshade told her just as Cheshire pushed Nightshade once more into the window. "Can't we do this against like a wall or something?" she asked pushing Cheshire back with a fire wall.

"Afraid you'll fall?" Cheshire asked after Nightshade had shifted away from the window.

"Very," she answered starting to feel a little weak from the poison that Cheshire's Kunai had. Cheshire smiled and kicked Nightshade giving her enough room to stab her with the other Kunai doubling the effect of the poison. Nightshade stumbled back, but before she could hit the window, Aqualad caught her.

"Get Artemis and move away from here," he ordered walking towards Cheshire.

"Right, just give me a second," she answered, her legs finally giving in forcing her to the ground. Aqualad pulled out his water-bearers and launched towards Cheshire, but she dodged his attacks and managed to land a kick to his face. Batman and Catwoman noticed the situation and ran over to help him, but Sportsmaster threw his hammer their way to get their attention. Batman looked past him, the man had managed to injure Batgirl and knock out Zatanna.

"Looks like this one also wants to play," said Catwoman pulling out her whip "shall we, Bats?" She asked Batman who took out a couple of his Batarangs and charged towards Sportsmaster. While this was going on, Nightwing and Rocket had knocked out Kid Flash, but Jason had managed to avoid their hits so far. It wasn't until Rocket managed to land a hit that sent him flying all the way past Aqualad and Cheshire's fight and into the glass window finally breaking it.

"Robin!" yelled Batman, he tried to go after him, but Sportsmaster stopped him. Rocket sped past everyone and flew out the window after the kid.

"Looks like this is our cue to leave," Sportsmaster told them before she and Cheshire ran out of the room while the rest were distracted by Jason's fall. When Rocket brought Jason back to the room, she placed him right next to the unconscious Kid Flash and Superboy. Artemis and Zatanna had already regained consciousness, so the group figured it had something to do with Queen Bee's trance.

"She got away," Batman's voice cut through the silence.

"She was wearing a disguise and she came in during the speech through the bathroom door," Nightwing answered showing the security footage along with Batgirl.

"Did she get close to any of the Qurac dipolmats?" he asked.

"Doesn't look like it, but we'll look into it," Batgirl answered. Batman stared at them for a few seconds before leaving with Catwoman.

"Nice meeting you kids. Nightshade, call every once in a while," Catwoman said and left as soon as she saw the weakened Nightshade flip her off. Miss Martian picked up the other three that remained unconscious and Aqualad got to Nightshade before Nightwing could.

Mount Justice- January 26th – 5:24 A.M-

The team walked into the cave as Garfield watched Miss Martian taking Kid Flash, Superboy and Robin to the medical bay.

"What happened?" he asked, but no one was in the mood to answer. Following the team came Aqualad carrying Jade in his arms and then placing her on the couch. "Did Queen Bee do this?" Garfield asked once more.

"Yes," Miss Martian answered once she came back from the medical bay. "And she got away," Miss Martian told him. Garfield turned around to see Batgirl and Nightwing going over the security footage of the building, his eyes then turned to Jade who was laying on the couch with a hand covering her eyes.

"You should not worry about her, the poison might take some time to wear off, but it will not kill her," Aqualad told him noticing the look on Garfield's face. "The others will also wake up soon," he reassured the kid before moving on to where Nightwing and Batgirl were. Still, Garfield couldn't help but wonder if he could have done something to help them out.


	39. Breather

Palo Alto- 8:00 A.M.

Wally woke up in his bed, it had been a year since he moved into an apartment close to his university, he stretched out his arm but when he didn't feel the thing that he was looking for, he sat up on the bed and looked around the room. After examining the empty room, he got up and rushed out of the room to find what he was looking for.

"Babe, I thought you had left," he said looking at Artemis who had her hair down and was standing in front of the stove cooking breakfast still in her pajamas.

"Where would I go Wally, I also live here," she said turning around with a plate of eggs that she set right in front of him.

"Yeah, I sometimes forget about that," he answered setting the eggs aside and pouring both their juices while she sat down to eat. He gave her a kiss before sitting next to her to wolf down his food. Artemis chuckled while he ate his breakfast, she had moved into his apartment a few weeks ago, but even she was amazed how fast he would forget that they lived together. "Hey babe, I don't think I'll be home today, I have class and study group after that, so I guess I'll see you later today," he said getting up from his chair.

"Wally," she told him, a smile on her face as she watched him run around the house getting ready.

"Yeah?" he stopped right in front of the door, his bag already over his shoulder.

"Happy Valentines day," she said giving him a kiss as shock flooded his face.

"No way! That's today?" he asked. "Babe, I'm sorry, I'll make it back after class, I swear," he told her.

"It's okay Wally, I'll wait for you here," she answered and pushed him out of the apartment, "you're going to be late for class,"

"Right, I'll call you," he said and rushed off only to come back before she could close the door and give her a long kiss. "I love you," he told her and disappeared once more.

February 14th – Mount Justice- 2:30 P.M.

M'gann and Conner had been fighting more and more recently, which is why their Valentine's day started on a sour note. It didn't help that Garfield wanted to stick around M'gann all day, giving them no chance to talk things out. After having a long fight about where they were going to eat, the three of them decided to just stay in. M'gann and Garfield started cooking something for the three of them to eat while Superboy finished tidying up after them.

The tension between them was clear the moment the three of them sat down to eat. Garfield kept trying to make conversation, but their answers were short and to the point, so his attempts were futile.

"Maybe we could watch a movie after?" Garfield continued trying to lighten the mood.

"You two should watch it, I'm going to train for a while," Superboy answered setting aside his full plate and leaving.

"Conner wait!" M'gann called after him, "we should talk about this," she said when he turned around to face her.

His stare hardened while he answered, "there's nothing you and I can talk about," he told her.

Dakota City- 4:20 P.M.

"Where are you going?" Raquel asked after Jade got up from the couch once the movie was over.

"I'm babysitting tonight," she answered putting her jacket on.

"Okay, if you're going to ditch me, at least make a more credible excuse," she told her looking over the backside of her couch to the door where Jade was putting her shoes on. "I thought we both agreed to spend Valentines day together since none of us had a date,"

"I really am babysitting,"

"Wow, you're sticking with that?"

"Wanna come and see for yourself," Jade hadn't even finished that sentence and Raquel was already up and putting her shoes on.

Gotham City- 5:12 P.M.

After talking about it, Richard and Barbara had decided to try dating, so he decided to take her to the movies for the night. He picked her up and after getting a stern look from Commissioner Gordon, the two of them walked all the way to the movie theater.

"I honestly thought your dad was going to shoot me," Richard told Barbara as she let out a small chuckle. "I'm serious, I sure he would have done it if you had left me alone with him," he kept going just to see her laughing harder.

"You're exaggerating, he probably would have threatened you, but that's as far as he would take it," she answered finally calming down. "So, what's this movie we're watching?" she asked him leaning closer to him just as they turned the corner of the movie theater.

"Parker, it's an action movie," he explained leading her to the line for tickets. "Been trying to see it, I was going with Wally, but I thought you would be a better company," he said looking right at her, a couple of seconds passed before he leaned in to kiss Barbara. They only pulled away when they heard someone clearing their throat.

"If you're done kissing now, you could tell me what movie you're watching," the teen at the ticket booth said. Barbara started laughing again as Richard scrambled to pull out his wallet. "Two tickets for Parker, enjoy the movie and happy Valentine's day," he said in a dead tone as the two of them walked into the theater.

New York City- 6:00 P.M.

Jade and Raquel arrived at the rundown apartment building in the center of the city. They made their way to the door and before Jade could ring the doorbell, she was buzzed in. They walked all the way to the third floor where two young kids were waiting for them with smiles plastered across their faces. The oldest girl ran towards Jade and jumped into her arms while her baby brother stumbled towards them.

"You're early!" the little girl yelled with excitement, she popped her head over Jade's shoulder to see Raquel staring in awe at the whole scene. "And you brought a friend!" she yelled.

"Yeah, Sam this is my friend Raquel," Jade told her, and Sam climbed down and rushed over to Raquel.

"Hi!" she said spreading her arms wide, then she pointed at the little boy that Jade had just picked up. "This is my brother Nolan, he's three years old," she explained. Raquel squatted down to look at her in the eyes, this kid had beautiful light green eyes that contrasted with her tan skin, a little bit lighter than hers.

"Hi sweetie," Raquel answered. "How old are you?"

"I'm eight!" she answered just as an old man walked out the door.

"I was wondering what was taking you so long to come in," he said looking at Raquel. He walked towards her and extended his hand for her to shake it. "I'm Samuel, this little rascals' grandfather," he introduced himself. Raquel shook his hand and walked behind them as the old man guided them into the apartment. Jade settled Nolan down on the high chair and went directly for the fridge.

"You weren't lying," Raquel said as she looked around the tiny studio with a single twin bed pushed against the corner of the room. "I can't wait to tell everyone," she kept talking while walking up to Jade who was taking out some baby food. She glared at her before serving the food to Nolan and then instructing Raquel to take out some food from the fridge to make a sandwich for Sam.

"Sam has your mom already left?" Jade asked.

"Yeah, she left a while ago," Sam answered and then she looked over at Raquel, "Mommy works at night to help grandpa, but he says he doesn't like what she does," she told her and allowed Raquel's imagination to run wild with a number of things the kids mother could be doing. Her thoughts were caught off when the old man came out with a large black bag, ready to head out.

"Well, I'm off to work," he said. The kids waved at him and the man waved back, his green eyes shining a little under the apartments dim light. "I'll see you later Jade," he said, but the girl didn't even lift her head up.

"Don't do anything stupid," she simply said. The man stood by the door for a few seconds before finally closing.

"You shouldn't say bad words," Sam told Jade.

"Yeah Jade," Raquel told her trying not to laugh at Jade getting scolded by a kid. They finally put the sandwich in front of Sam and the four of them sat down to eat, with Jade feeding Nolan and Raquel laughing every time the kid would refuse to eat.

Mount Justice- 6:50 P.M.

"There seems to be a problem," Aquaman told Kaldur, his face popping up on a screen while Kaldur checked some documents on the other one. The things Aquaman had sent him were ancient documents held in Atlantis, they spoke about artifacts that had been lost and were supposedly scattered over the ocean floor. "There's this man called Scavenger, he's been looking for these artifacts,"

"You mean these artifacts are real?" he asked scanning the documents. He had heard about them, everyone in Atlantis had, but the way they spoke about them always made them feel like fairytales. Artifacts that grant different powers to whoever possess them.

"They seem to be, no one has ever found anything," Aquaman answered.

"Then why is this man looking for something that might not exist," he asked.

"That is the problem, we are not certain, and Scavenger is a human, a human that hasn't been seen in almost 48 hours," Aquaman told him.

"You need a search party,"

"A search party that can be discrete enough with all of this information," Aquaman clarified. Aqualad kept looking over the files, these artifacts were known as The Seven Treasures of Atlantis, created by King Atlan. While he was analyzing the situation, Zatanna walked into the room and without saying anything, she stood next to him.

"I thought you were going out with Jade and Raquel," he said.

"Yeah, but I found this really good show and ended up watching the whole season in a day. Also I've been trying to avoid whatever is going on with M'gann and Conner. What are you doing?" she asked looking at the screen finally noticing Aquaman and waving at him.

"Trying to locate these artifacts," he told her, "they have been lost in the ocean for years, thought to be just childhood stories," he explained.

"And why are you trying to find them now?" Zatanna asked reading over the files.

"A human went down to try and find them, no one has seen him for a whole day. There's only a certain amount of oxygen in those tanks," he said.

"These all have a magical origin, right?" Zatanna asked and both Aqualad and Aquaman nodded. She placed her hand over the holographic globe Aqualad had produced, and after casting a spell, seven x were drawn over it. Aqualad lifted his gaze to meet hers and the two of them started planning the team's next mission.


End file.
